Oscar nominee Dev Patel ventures behind the camera (also starring & co-writing) this India set revenge yarn. Coming from meager straits, Patel has had to make his way to the big bad city (since we see in flashback, he was a country bumpkin at heart) now a masked fighter who's not making a much of a dent on the fighting circuit but when he comes in contact w/a lawman, Sikander Kher, who torched his village & raped/killed his mum, he decides to put an elaborate plan in motion (getting in good w/a woman club owner, Ashwini Kalsekar, who he returns a purse back after we see a montage of different hands the purse went through ending up in his paws) getting a job bottom rung level style setting his plan in motion where he makes some plusses holding his own against some of Kher's hordes but when he gets hurt & finds himself in a nearby village to recuperate, a holy man counsels him on his journey to become a freedom fighter whose fight is a good one, Patel redoubles his efforts (cue the training sequence montage) leading to a showdown w/Kher in a no holds bar pugilist clutch. Maybe too much, at least for me, an effort for Patel to take on ultimately wore me out when you take a John Wick style narrative of comeuppance layered w/attacks on India's caste system, the have's & the have-not's, the hero as spiritual savior, et al made me feel the way my eyes do whenever I glance at the offerings at an all you can eat smorgasbord. Oooh, I need some cinematic pepto! Also starring Sharlto Copley as the ring announcer in Patel's bouts.
Review of Monkey Man
