Monsters

Monsters is a quiet, contemplative film about immigration policy that has been dressed up like a sci-fi monster movie. The monsters are there, in the periphery, but ultimately are beside the point.

I'm acquainted with at least one viewer who was outraged to find not a sci-fi shoot 'em up like District 9, but instead a navel-gazing art film. That's fair enough, but on its own merits Monsters is an effective little film.

Written, directed, and photographed by Gareth Edwards (he also did the visual effects), Monsters is set in the near future. In title cards we are told that a spacecraft that gathered samples of an alien life-form crashed over Mexico. Now the entire northern part of that country is off limits, called the "Infected Zone." The creatures are giant cephalapods that reminded me of the Elder Gods from Lovecraft. They are kept out of the U.S., ideally, by the construction of a massive wall. Does any of this sound familiar?

The film centers on two characters. Scooter Nairy is a roguish photographer (are there any other kind?) who is on assignment for a major media conglomerate. He's enlisted to rescue the media mogul's daughter (Whitney Able), who is a marine biologist and has a pixie haircut. I learned later that Able is known mostly for her appearance in Maxim, and that she and Nairy have wed. Love blooms even on low-budget sets.

The two try to travel the legitimate way, by ferry (I missed why they didn't catch a plane in Mexico City), but when Nairy is robbed of their passports by a one-night fling they have to go through the Infected Zone. They have a run-in with the creatures, who are only seen briefly and usually in long-shot, given the limits of the budget. They talk a lot with their guides, and fall in love, I guess, but that's not really reflected in the acting.

When they reach the wall on the border, they have an unusually easy time breaching it. They have their closest encounter with the creatures at a gas station (apparently the wall was no more effective keeping them out), and two are transfixed by what appears to be two monsters in some sort of love dance.

Anyone thinking this will be a typical monster movie will be sorely disappointed, and those who were hoping for some sort of European art film might be let down as well. I suggest watching it with a completely open mind, because it does have some interesting things to say about U.S. xenophobia.