The Monkey's Mask | |
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Movie poster
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Directed by | Samantha Lang |
Produced by |
Robert Connolly John Maynard |
Written by |
Anne Kennedy Dorothy Porter |
Starring |
Susie Porter Kelly McGillis Abbie Cornish |
Music by |
Jacqui Hunt Antony Partos Kathleen Power Pete Rivett-Carnac |
Cinematography | Garry Phillips |
Edited by | Dany Cooper |
Distributed by |
Footprint Films Strand Releasing |
Release date
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13 September 2000 |
Running time
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93 minutes |
Country | Australia Canada France Italy Japan |
Language | English |
Box office | $45,826 (USA sub-total) A$150,177 (Australia) |
The Monkey's Mask is an international co-production 2000 thriller film directed by Samantha Lang. It stars Susie Porter and Kelly McGillis. Porter plays a lesbian private detective who falls in love with a suspect (McGillis) in the disappearance of a young woman. The film is based on the verse novel of the same name by Australian poet Dorothy Porter.
A young woman called Mickey (Abbie Cornish) reads a poem to an audience at a bar. When she leaves, she gets into an unseen person's car.
Jill Fitzpatrick (Porter) is a former police officer and a private detective who investigates missing persons. She gets a job to look for Mickey, who has been missing for two weeks. Jill goes to Mickey's university and meets her poetry professor, Diana (McGillis). Jill is quickly attracted to Diana, who is married. They meet several times for coffee, not always talking about Mickey, and go out for a drink. They eventually sleep together.
Jill hears from Mickey's parents that Mickey's body has been found. They want Jill to continue investigating because the police are "no help". Jill continues working but is distracted by her affair with Diana. One day Diana's husband catches them together, but he is not bothered.
Jill's friend Lou introduces her to the poet community. She meets two poets, Bill and Tony, both of whom are older men who were having sexual relationships with Mickey. Neither want to talk to Jill. Jill reads some of Mickey's poems that were written about Bill. Sexually explicit, Diana calls them "victim poetry" and calls Mickey a "nympho". Jill starts receiving threatening telephone messages from someone with their voice disguised. Mickey's flatmate gives Jill a video taken of Mickey in the bar the night she went missing.
One night Diana chokes Jill during sex to achieve erotic asphyxiation. Later Diana asks her if she enjoyed it. Jill says she cannot remember. Jill meets Bill who tells her that Mickey "broke" him and made him write filth. He says he has evidence connected to the case and will come to Jill's house with it. On his way to her house, Bill's car explodes and he dies.