Monkey's Mask, The

Los Angeles Times Kevin Thomas

In directing The Monkey's Mask from Annie Kennedy's adaptation of Dorothy Porter's novel-in-poetry, Samantha Lang displays considerable style and assurance, with Porter and McGillis giving beautifully nuanced portrayals.

New Times (L.A.) David Ehrenstein

Think "Basic Instinct" with brains, and you've got it.

LA Weekly Paul Malcolm

What makes the film compelling is the filmmakers' ability to blend a studied (occasionally academic) dissection of cultural and sexual decadence with a potboiler plot.

Boston Globe Jay Carr

Less elliptical and more down-and-dirty than Lang's interesting debut film, ''The Well,'' this one tumbles through Sydney's academic and alternative poetry circles and is built around a lesbian private eye.

Variety Todd McCarthy

Builds and sustains considerable interest through its unexpected characterizations, unusual milieu and atmospheric style.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Paula Nechak

It isn't quite like watching a train wreck -- it's more perverse and anti-climactic -- but it's as hard to shake once it's passed.

New York Daily News Jami Bernard

Kelly McGillis quite literally as you've never seen her -- as a manipulative, icy sex goddess in whose bedroom there are no limits.

Mr. Showbiz Kevin Maynard

Makes for compulsive viewing.

TV Guide Ken Fox

The plot itself isn't really strong enough to stand alone. And that leaves the film an essentially conventional whodunit, if one with a rather unconventional sleuth at its center.

San Francisco Chronicle Bob Graham

Poetry, lesbian sex and murder might be a killer combination if a deadly pace weren't included in the mix.

Chicago Tribune Loren King

It is awkward and dull, a capital crime for an aspiring noir.

Miami Herald Connie Ogle

McGillis, though, is the film's worst enemy. Her wooden attempts to recreate Kathleen Turner circa 1981 undermine too many scenes.

New York Post Lou Lumenick

Remarkably sluggish and not particularly suspenseful.

Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten

The Monkey's Mask is filmed with an eye toward an arthouse sheen, although Lang's dramatic pacing is sluggish and dull.

The New York Times Dana Stevens

Instead of suspense, there is confusion; instead of intrigue, a lot of inexplicable confrontation among characters whose significance is not so much enigmatic as obscure.

Village Voice J. Hoberman

The film seems dimly aware of its own ridiculousness, but it lacks the constitution for self-mockery.