Kore-eda’s ‘Monster’ Sets Date & Trailer

Hirokazu Kore-eda’s “Monster” has a trailer. It’s also been given a release date — November 22nd in Los Angeles on December 1st in New York. No word yet on a wider expansion.

The reviews out of Cannes were positive for “Monster.” It mostly worked, but I found it to be another letdown from him after “The Truth” and last year’s “Broker.” There’s a lot of mush sentimentality in this film.

A humanist at heart, Kore-eda attempts a Rashomon-style film consisting of child actors, and a few adults. It actually bears striking resemblance to last year’s “Close,” another queer-themed film that also tried too hard to tug at the heartstrings. Both films will have their ardent fans.

Returning to his native Japan, Kore-eda opens the film with a building on fire. Who caused the incident? Is it fifth-grader Minato (Kurokawa Soya)? The seemingly troubled 11-year-old lives with his single mom Saori (Ando Sakura), who suspects he’s being physically abused by his schoolteacher Mr. Hori (Nagayama Eita).

Kore-eda tells his story three separate time frames, from a different point of view each time: Saori’s, Minato’s and his best friend Yori’s. The goal is to have the viewer come up with incorrect conclusions each and every time. Kore-eda wants us to be guilty of false assumptions, just like its characters.

The problem is that its narrative plot device distracts us from the film’s story. It keeps shapeshifting at every turn but cannot find the proper groove to let us in.

Yes, “Monster” is complex but it’s also predictable and flimsy in the way it tries to bring redemption to its central characters. The purposeful way it refuses to have us understand or find coherence, until its very final stretch, is frustratingly oblique.

Of note, this is the late Ryuichi Sakamoto’s last composed score — a crushingly emotional piano-tinged treat that ends up being one of the highlights of this messy film.