re:mote voices

Title: B Monkey
Cast: Asia Argento, Jared Harris, Rupert Everett, Jonathan Rhys-Meyers
Director:Michael Radford

B Monkey is a British crime film from 1998, which was on the TV a while ago. I taped it then, and never got round to watching it till a week or two ago. Which in a typical manner means that is on the TV again this week – so for those in the UK, B Monkey with Asia Argento is on ITV Friday night.

Beatrice (Argento) is an Italian woman living in London, a graffiti artist and criminal – thanks to her size and ability she has gained the nickname B Monkey for her ability to get in and out of places. But hanging around with the boss (Rupert Everett) and his young lover (Jonathan Rhys-Meyer) is getting old, the group becoming increasingly reckless. So she wants to turn over a new leaf, trying to wash the bright red colouring from her hair and get an office job. In this process she meets a man, Alan (Jared Harris), who has also reached a turning point in his life – that where he is starting to realise he is not living his dreams. Rather than becoming a Jazz musician like he has always wanted he becomes a primary school teacher. The nearest he gets to living Jazz is as an evening/night DJ on hospital radio.

Beatrice is surprised when Alan approaches her, sure that he has connections with the underworld and wants something from her. But once they get past that they start to form a strange little relationship. The particularly striking scenes coming in response to his talk of the Jazz scene in Paris in the 1920s, resulting in their journey to revisit the past. Which feels like a particularly Hobanesque moment, a number of Russell Hoban’s novels featuring a similar kind of voyage. A similar feel, on reflection, can be found in the relationship itself. The relationship has its ups and downs, Beatrice’s resistance to the mundanity of regular life versus her unwillingness to help those who would prevent her from leaving the criminal lifestyle.

B Monkey isn’t a particularly brilliant film, but it is a decent little romantic drama with an element of grit and the appeals of Asia Argento.