People are not good at hiding things in “Your Monster,” with the playwright Jacob (Edmund Donovan) changing around a few letters of the name of his girlfriend Laura Franco (Melissa Barrera) to Laurie Francis, the lead character in his latest musical that she inspired. This would’ve been all well and good if Jacob hadn’t dumped Laura, in the middle of cancer treatments no less when he believed himself incapable of visiting her at the hospital while shepherding his beloved production to Broadway, and she can’t hide her anger with him, though she has trouble letting go of her role, either on-stage or off, deciding that it’s worth taking a chance on crashing the auditions when there’s no doubt after being a muse, she deserves her breakthrough as much as Jacob does. Writer/director Caroline Lindy makes for such a keen observer of this, likely because she turns out to be good at a bit of creative subterfuge herself in her feature debut, sending Laura back home to the empty brownstone of her absent mother as she recovers from her cancer treatments and finds alongside the stack of pies awaiting for her to provide comfort, there is also, after a few days, the reappearance of the beast (Tommy Dewey, in full wolfman regalia) that used to give her night terrors.
In the wickedly fun dark comedy, Laura learns to move towards what scares her the most, though the monster wouldn’t rank amongst the biggest fears in her life when she still has clinic visits and has to consider how she’ll move on after her professional and personal breakup with Jacob. Still, she can’t easily shake him, when in a shrewd touch among many in “Your Monster,” the creature wants the same level of stability that Laura does, given that they’re about the same age, and he’d prefer to lounge around these days than frighten people. Although he sets a two-week deadline to evacuate the premises, it comes and goes when he’s a little lazy and starts enjoying her company and while it takes a little more for her to say the same, she needs a scene partner to practice with if she wants to crash the auditions for Jacob’s “The House of Good Women,” and upon landing a place in the ensemble against all odds, to calm her nerves rather than frazzle her as she watches her ex try to seduce the show’s leading lady (Meghann Fahy).
The fact that “The House of Good Women” could credibly play Broadway – you wouldn’t mind the film taking on another two hours to present the show in full based on the handful of original songs by Daniel and Patrick Lazour – is indicative of the level of detail that makes “Your Monster” play so well on the big screen, taking its fantastical premise and consistently locating the reality within it. After squaring off with Ghostface in “Scream” and belting out ballads in “In the Heights,” Barrera is uniquely suited for the role of Laura, able to tame a feral creature or an audience without breaking a sweat, and Dewey, who has excelled at undercutting his fierce demeanor with laid-back charm on shows such as “Casual,” is an endearing foil that makes one forget from time to time his character literally chews scenery (or people). At times, you may wish Lindy would actually go a little further with either the horror or the humor, but the filmmaker hardly lacks ambition in creating a cohesive world where there’s plenty of both and strikes a nice tonal balance that allows the film’s considerable heart to shine through. The only fear shown on either side of the camera is what Laura comes to embrace as her power, and if anything, what’s truly frightening in “Your Monster” is the talent that’s on display.
“Your Monster” will screen again at the Sundance Film Festival on January 25th at 4:30 pm at the Library Center Theatre in Park City and January 26th at 9 pm at the Rose Wagner Center in Salt Lake City.