Spanking the Monkey

This film tends to reject the Hollywood made-for-TV oedipus complex (which is usually only expressed in undertones) scenario of a youth beset with confusion over his seemingly unhealthy relationship with his mentally ill mother, and his need to have a uncomplicated non-incestous relationship with Miss American Apple Pie. What we're presented with is a story of an independant young man who has dedicated himself to being unfettered by his emotionally distant, overzealous parents.

When his mother suffers a badly broken leg, he is called upon to take full responsibility for her care thru her entire recuperation. Very reluctantly, he is forced to acknowledge their authority yet again. He is immediately confronted with her immasculating condensations, but is unnerved by her very uninhibited demenor when under the influence of her prescribed pain-killers.

When me and my friend saw this, we were somewhat uncomfortable with the realistic candor of the actors portraying the mother and son. I can say this film, unlike any other I've seen elicits the nervous humor response far more effectively, and truly makes this worth seeing.

Writer/director David O. Russell gives us a disturbing look at a dysfunctional family. Turn your head, Granny. Incest, masturbation, sexual impropriety and a family failing in communication, honor and respect. A promising pre-med student(Jeremy Davies) returns home from his freshman year at MIT to tend to his bedridden, mentally unstable mother(Alberta Watson)while dear old dad(Benjamin Hendrickson)is engaged with extended 'business trips' that allows him to practice adultery. Davies is caught up in a wad of sexual confusion. The family dog keeps interrupting the young man's attempts at self gratification. A young neighborhood girl(Carla Gallo)accuses him of rape after some heavy petting. Mom is attractive and needs some attention. The dutiful son ends up drinking with his mom and next comes the horizontal bop. This totally drives a stake into his secret fixation on his domineering mother. This dark comedy flirting with taboo subjects is disturbing as much as it is interesting. Now time to go spank the......

An independent film that bravely confronts the subject of consensual incest is presented as a dark comedy in which ALBERTA WATSON and JEREMY DAVIES, as mother and son, have the key roles. It's their mother/son relationship at the heart of the story that is compelling and sometimes erotic--especially the scene where Davies has to massage his mother's legs and toes while they discuss why her road travelling husband isn't there to do it for her.

When the story strays to others outside this relationship, it fails to make the same connection. The father is strictly a man so obsessed with his own career that he ignores his wife. She, in turn, is a manipulative shrew who virtually seduces her son because she's a needy woman. The son's friends are depicted as total drug-happy boors and boozers whose minds are completely idle.

At times the story becomes dark and brooding--even intense--and yet there's a surface tension broken by laughter at some of the shenanigans going on in this dysfunctional, to say the least, family.

Outstanding work by JEREMY DAVIES and ALBERTA WATSON. He's highly sympathetic in his predicament all the way through and she's totally despicable in the manner by which she exerts control over him. Both show complete understanding of their difficult roles.

Summing up: Interesting tale, character-driven and flawed, but worth watching.

Considering the plethora of reviews here, both good and bad, there isn't much I can say that hasn't already been said. I will add that the first half works "reasonably" well, allowing viewers to understand perhaps how such a thing as an incestuous encounter could possibly happen. But then the film derails, and derails big time. The boy blames his mother completely for what they did, and the film seems to side with him despite the fact that it had previously shown us that he was just as guilty as she in the liaison. The film gets unspeakably ugly from there. The subject of consensual incest has been addressed by film only a few times over the years, always with unsatisfactory results---perhaps this is reflective of society's uneasiness with the subject. Consensual incest is about the only "sexual more" that is never discussed (even by psychologists), even though it likely occurs in real life with more frequency than we would like to believe.

This is a film whose title and poster not only give nothing away but actually mislead. The name Spanking the Monkey – a euphemism for masturbation – makes you think this must probably be a bawdy teen sex-comedy, while the poster depicts the picture of a real smart aleck. Both factors are bizarrely inappropriate, as the title, while mentioned once in the passing, is pretty much irrelevant, while the guy on the poster in no way reflects the character in the film who is anything but confident. Overall, this is a movie whose content is a very different proposition to its marketing. And perhaps that is because the material here is pretty difficult and challenging to say the least. I'm sure this must have stoked up some controversy in its day. After all, it deals with one of the ultimate taboo areas – incest; although, in this case it is admittedly of the consenting kind. It explores the troubling idea of the Oedipal Complex, via a sexual relationship between a mother and her son. It pulls off the impressive trick of simultaneously not pulling its punches, while still exercising a certain restraint. Material like this is so tricky that it needs very careful execution and David O. Russell, in his directorial debut, shows impressive ability to do just that.

It's about Ray, an introverted college student, who has a disastrous summer. He is coerced into looking after his bed-ridden mother by his uncaring, immoral salesman father. She is overly dependent on him not only physically but emotionally as well and soon is encouraging an unhealthy relationship. At the same time Ray is developing a very awkward relationship with a neighbouring girl and hanging out with old friends who antagonise him.

It's a drama about discomforts. Ray lives a life of humiliations at every turn. His father bullies him, his mother manipulates him, his girlfriend makes him feel sexually inadequate and his friends display little respect for him. Even his dog seems to antagonise him by constantly interrupting him while he has a, shall we say, moment with himself. It's a drama with a fair bit of black comedy sprinkled throughout. At heart it's about a very dysfunctional family. It works so well because of the characters and acting. Everybody is well-drawn and convincing, which is important given the extreme areas that the film explores. In particular, Jeremy Davies is really very good as Ray. He is definitely a sympathetic character who finds himself lost in a messed up situation that he struggles to find a way out of. Alberta Watson is also excellent in the role of his mother. She is an alluring presence and like Davies strikes the balance just right in what is also a very tricky and complex role.