It’s still a jungle out there. Adrian Monk returns to solve the murder of his stepdaughter’s fiancé, which tragically occurs right before the happy couple can get married in thePeacock original film,Mr. Monk’s Last Case: A Monk Movie. Tony Shalhoub shines as only he can while slipping back into his most famous role with the greatest of ease. And this long-awaited adventure is being heralded as one last mystery for everyone’s favorite OCD detective to unravel following the success of the television seriesMonk.
Shalhoub portrayed Mr. Monk for a total of eight seasons, ultimately winning three Emmys (2003, 2005, 2006) for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series. The award-winning actor is getting back into character after a 14-year absence. However, even with Shalhoub’s impeccable acting chops operating at their peak,Mr. Monk’s Last Caseisn’t “the perfect sandwich.”
Fans of the show will undoubtedly remember the time Adrian stumbled upon the life-altering discovery of the square tomato. The uniquely shaped fruit allowed Monk to cut and assemble, as he called it, “the perfect sandwich.” Unfortunately, even with the television series’ cast of regulars returning and Shalhoub bringing his A-game,Mr. Monk’s Last Casehardly represents the quintessential Adrian Monk the fanbase so deserves. It’s too soft and round a tomato.
Plotting Mr. Monk’s Last Case
In a world that has tried to move beyond the COVID-19 pandemic, Adrian Monk (Tony Shalhoub) has taken a few steps backwards since the television show’s series finale in 2009. His stepdaughter, Molly (Caitlin McGee), is about to get married, and this joyous occasion is what brings back the beloved characters from creator Andy Breckman’s episodic world, including Natalie (Traylor Howard) and Randy (Jason Gray-Stanford).
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Monk feels he has failed Molly, though, when his book deal falls through, so he can’t pay for the extravagant wedding the former detective thinks she deserves. With all the added stress and pressures, Adrian is once more seeing and having full-blown conversations with his dead wife, Trudy (Melora Hardin). But what even his doctor, Neven Bell (Héctor Elizondo), doesn’t know is that Monk is planning out his own suicide.
But when Molly’s fiancé, Griffin (Austin Scott), is killed in a freak bungee jumping accident, Monk comes to her aid with the intention of discovering if and how the unscrupulous Rick Eden (James Purefoy) may have orchestrated Griffin’s death. While Shalhoub shines once more as the lovable OCD detective, a vanilla villain — who Leland Stottlemeyer (Ted Levine) just happens to work security for now — and a number of missed opportunities doomMr. Monk’s Last Caseto the doldrums of disappointment.
A Vapid Villain
The ol' cliché that a hero is only as good as his or her villain definitely comes into play duringMr. Monk’s Last Case,because Rick Eden (Purefoy) is written like a five-and-dime rip-off of Lex Luthor. Without getting into spoilers, Eden has silenced the journalistic findings of Molly’s fiancé, Griffin, which could expose the shuttle craft and planet-orbiting-obsessed megalomaniac as the monster he truly is.
And while Purefoy does what he can with the inferior material that was written for him, Eden seems far too aloof to avoid suspicion for the crime which Molly and Monk think he’s committed. Short of Eden actually twirling his mustache, he’s far too obvious of an over-the-top villain to even consider him a worthy challenge for Monk. And the one thing writer Andy Breckman should have made sure was in place before trying to follow up the TV show’s success: a character who could not only match wits with Monk but keep audiences' attention throughout the film’s 97-minute runtime.
It’s been 14 years since Monk and his crime-fighting cohorts have been on the case, and their reunion is marred by a poorly written bad guy who doesn’t even belong in Adrian’s league. Eden could have been something special if the character had been fully realized, say like some of Mr. Monk’s more memorable foes, including Dale “The Whale," Hal Tucker, or, of course, the man responsible for Trudy’s death, Frank Nunn.
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Missed Opportunities
The hardest pill to swallow inMr. Monk’s Last Caseconcerns all the opportunities lost during what turned out to be a mediocre movie. One of the biggest laughs comes when seeing a black-and-white flashback of Monk sitting at the dinner table in a HAZMAT suit during the pandemic. The premise of Monk versusthe COVID-19 worldalone is already a better idea for a movie-length story than the one fans were forced to sit through on Peacock. But writer Andy Breckman breaks the cardinal rule of storytelling by “telling” rather than “showing” when it comes to the Monk/COVID concept. There’s a lot implied about the pandemic’s effects on Adrian, but audiences don’t get to “see” hardly any of it.
The second missed opportunity came with the lackadaisical way the show’s original cast members are just thrown together inthe Peacock film. It’s been 14 years since theMonkseries finale, and the characters of Natalie, Randy, and Stottlemeyer are beloved parts of the show’s mythology. When Natalie and Randy reunite with Monk at the airport, it’s more painful to watch than heartwarming. In the meantime, Stottlemeyer seems obsessed by the wealth and prestige which go with his new security job — working for the villain of all people — and Dr. Neven Bell is completely wasted in the movie.
Fortunately, Melora Hardin is given both some meaningful material and screen time to share with her co-star, Shalhoub. No spoilers here, but Monk’s dead wife, Trudy (Hardin), interacts with the OCD detective throughout the entirety of the movie. And their scenes together provide some of the most vulnerable and thought-provoking moments inMr. Monk’s Last Case.
Mr. Monk’s Last Case?
In the end,Mr. Monk’s Last Casefeels more like an attempt to profit from the immensely popular cash cow that came to an end 14 years ago. Tony Shalhoub is unquestionably charismatic, tortured, and more determined than ever to solve the crime, as Adrian Monk, but the actor’s talents are wasted on a shoddy script that didn’t even have enough imagination on the page to conjure up a worthy opponent for Mr. Monk to square off against.
Rick Eden is clearly a recyclable villain who probably would have had more luck facing off against the bumbling Inspector Clouseau (Peter Sellers) ofThe Pink Pantherfilms, or Frank Drebin (Leslie Nielsen) fromThe Naked Gunfranchise, than a formidable opponent like Adrian Monk. Actor James Purefoy does all he can with the part to enrich Mr. Eden, but the character’s lack of development was simply too much to overcome.
And it’s hard to recommendMr. Monk’s Last Caseto the fans when the film drops the ball almost entirely when it comes to reuniting these beloved characters. The airport scene between Monk, Natalie and Randy, in particular, is poorly executed and should have felt more rewarding. Instead of having a sequence which mimics the warmth and feeling of the airport scene, say, at the end of the filmLove, Actually, audiences are forced to watch the very antithesis unfold. Sure, Mr. Monk has trouble touching, but he hasn’t seen his friends in forever! And rather than letting them all have a gratifying reunion, Andy Breckman wrote the scene so that Monk is angry at all of them for having left him. It’s a disservice to the fans to leave the franchise on such a sour note, so, hopefully, this won’t be Mr. Monk’s last case.
Mr. Monk’s Last Case: A Monk Movieis available to stream on Peacock through the link below, and theMonkseries is available to binge-watch on Peacock as well.
