‘Monster!’ Review: Pedro Pascal in Tony Gilroy’s Wan Character Study

Tony Gilroy returns to cinema after 14 years of absence – the last three spent in the Star Wars TV trenches as creator, showrunner and editor-in-chief on Andor – with a film that is difficult to love. Hampered by a finicky, hopscotch temporal structure that too often interrupts the dramatic momentum and by a central character whose passivity struggles against the warmth and magnetism of Pedro Pascal in the role, Monster! is an odd duck, by turns intriguing and frustrating. Best of all, it’s a series of thrilling sequences observing the workings of an orchestra employed on Hollywood’s composing stages.

This rarely glimpsed milieu and a virtuoso cellist protagonist could make Gilroy’s film look like Maestro encounter Tar. But the story’s internal engine rarely revs strong enough to withstand either of these comparisons, despite its competent ensemble cast and fine craftsmanship.

One of the problems is that Gilroy’s screenplay (Oscar nominated for writing and directing the film) Michael Clayton) gives insufficient dimension to the character of Pascal, Alex Serian, for someone supposed to carry a film. He’s marginal in his own life, which may well be the result of living in the shadow of a family of narcissists, but that’s not enough to make him interesting. It also doesn’t help that Alex’s failed relationships seem less a symptom of his own damage than his poor choice of partners.

The female characters are generally not drawn with kindness, particularly Carol Spedding (Olivia Wilde), a wealthy married patron whose fierce pursuit of Alex when he ends their affair makes her seem like a kindred spirit to Glenn Close in Fatal attraction. Perhaps Carol’s $6 million donation to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra during Alex’s tenure there allows her to feel some sort of ownership, even if it’s more implied than explored. “I bleed for you and you avoid me?” » screams the maniacal drama queen after blocking her calls.

Alex’s escape from the frightening Carol brings him back to his hometown of Los Angeles after 20 years of playing in other cities, looking to get back into session work recording orchestral film scores. It’s in these studio scenes – including Sony’s Barbra Streisand Scoring Studio – that the film is at its most dynamic.

This is due in large part to the staggering range of original and ravishing film scores we see performed – from dark drama and suspense to action and soaring romance – written by an ensemble of nine respected composers billed as “The Behemoth!” Collective.” They include Michael Abels, Emily Bear, Lukas Frank, Michael Giacchino, James Newton Howard, Henry Jackman, Nami Melumad, Brandan Roberts and Alan Silvestri. Much of their work is also featured in scenes elsewhere in the film, including an art rock song, a requiem, a cartoon theme, a harp concerto, and cello studies.

For anyone who loves movies, being led to think about the experiential role that a good score plays is fascinating, but even if Monster! pretending to be a celebration of film music, it never fully engages. We seem to have missed an opportunity by not seeing music tailored to specific beats on the screen, beyond the background shots of blurry footage on a monitor.

Alex’s relationship with his parents was defined by their need to upstage their children. We see video of Alex playing Bach at age 6 on the Johnny Carson show, but the film seems to suggest that nurturing their sons’ musical gifts was just another way to burnish their own reputation.

His egocentric brother Andy (Will Arnett, who is in another film) became something of a black sheep when he turned his back on classical viola to form a successful rock band in the ’90s. He now hosts a podcast on the TV and film themes of their late father Peter (Hank Azaria, in a video appearance). Their mother Ginnie (an unrecognizable JoBeth Williams) was a renowned harpist, who was rapidly suffering from dementia when Alex stayed with her upon her first return to Los Angeles. She once said of her husband: “He was a Peter who really wanted to be a Peter. »

But these glimmers of ideas fail to coalesce into a fleshed-out family mythology — even as we learn that Alex and Andy’s grandfather died of a stroke, immediately after hitting a high C while playing trumpet on the same MGM stage where Alex now works. There’s simply not enough meat on the bones of the parental background or in Alex and Andy’s conversations about them to give much shape to the supposedly chaotic upbringing that shaped them.

The film is more engaged with Alex’s reflections on his own life in the two decades since he left, jumping between fleeting relationships and elite orchestra positions in Boston, Dallas, and Chicago. The only woman he seems to have loved is the brilliant violinist Nadia (Eva Victor), who has given up on marrying a billionaire businessman (Matthew Lillard). Victor (Sorry, baby) is a glowing screen presence, but Nadia isn’t around long enough to leave much of an impression before Alex’s memories jump to his funeral six years later.

It is on this solemn occasion that he first sees Viviana, Nadia’s prodigiously gifted daughter, who plays an original piano composition of astonishing maturity. This piques Alex’s curiosity about the possibility that he is the girl’s father; his search for paternity gives the film a much-needed boost.

While Alex’s romantic past is too vague to be convincing, Pascal’s internalized performance becomes more touching once the character’s paternal instincts emerge. This first happens with Bronte (Kaya Ralls), a brilliant young cellist whom he trains for an audition with the prestigious San Francisco Symphony. (Professional musician Ralls is a natural in her first acting role.)

But it’s when it begins to follow Viviana’s success as a composer and musician in several genres that the film finally takes on some emotional dimension. An interlude in which their professional paths cross, when 15-year-old Viviana (Alexa Swinton, brilliant) is hired to take over major film scoring duties from a temperamental Euro-diva (Thomas Kretschmann, amusingly playing a male Lydia Tár), is charming. But it comes too late in a film that gives us little reason to care about its opaque central character.

Monster! is beautifully photographed by Damián García, who previously worked with Gilroy on Andorbut ultimately it’s only satisfying as a sensory experience in which the music takes on physical form, an aspect greatly enhanced by Dolby Atmos’ advanced sound technology.