No Such Thing

Maybe on a cutting room floor somewhere lie 15 to 20 minutes of footage that might have made this metaphorical monster movie a trenchant, ironic cultural satire instead of a frustrating misfire. Innocently intellectual Sarah Polley (Go, eXistenZ) gives a fine performance as a post-modern Little Red Riding Hood who befriends a misanthropic man-monster (Robert John Burke, Thinner) with a head full of mismatched horns and a millennia-long hatred of humanity. Unfortunately, in her naiveté, Polley leads the monster into circus freak exploitation when she uses her job at a TV network to try to help him. Just as this caustic, deadpan, beauty-and-the-beast comedy hits its stride, however, writer-director Hal Hartley (Flirt, Henry Fool) fast-forwards through what should be the film's heart--the monster trying to cope with civilization--and the movie falls apart. Burke's performance is a minor masterpiece, but his bizarrely comic journey feels truncated and that's a pity because until the last act, the picture is a clever and dark delight. Optional. (R. Blackwelder)