Monster tells the story of Steve Harmon (Kelvin Harrison, Jr.) a seventeen-year-old honor student whose world comes crashing down around him when he is charged with felony murder. The film follows his dramatic journey from a smart, likeable film student from Harlem attending an elite high school through a complex legal battle that could leave him spending the rest of his life in prison.
Chuck says:
Timely and vital, this adaptation of the novel by Walter Dean Myers is yet another calling card for Kelvin Harrison Jr. (Luce, The High Note), one of the most dynamic and versatile young actors working today. As Steve Harmon, he’s given a role in which he can impress once more. The New York City teen finds himself on trial after inadvertantly getting himself involved in a robbery that leads to a murder and in the process Harrison conveys fear and sincerity in equal measure with startling conviction.
In his feature debut, director Anthony Madler effectively mixes film styles in telling the tale, employing flashbacks to Steve’s before-trial-life that show him as a young cinema student of great potential while crosscutting with scenes of him in prison awaiting trial. These moments are genuinely unsettling, Harrison conveying his character’s inner-turmoil in a subtle yet genuine manner, Madler bolstering this sense with tight shots and a wavering camera.
The pace is never manic, the story moving at a steady pace as it also looks at the effect these events have on Steve’s parents, played by the mismatched Steven Wright and Jennifer Hudson, talented performers that are given far too little to do here. No matter, they make what few moments they have count, as does Jennifer Ehle as Steve’s defense attorney, giving a quiet, assured performance that helps anchor any scene she’s in.
Genuinely tense and ultimately poignant, this is a cautionary, timely tale that serves as a bracing reminder of the power and dangers of baseless perception and just how difficult it is to cling to your true self, when society has pigeon-holed you in another role.
3 1/2 Stars
