How do I summarise the impact this film had on me? Firstly, I was very well entertained from start to finish. I love any movies about authors and novelists, as I understand the pain and pleasure of the creative writing process. It’s always good to see how someone who’s “made it” makes it work for them.
And in this film, Monk (played by Jeffrey Wright in his Oscar nominated role) is plodding away, writing literary novels that are always highly acclaimed but don’t sell many copies. Being of African-America descent, his publisher encourages him to write something “more black”, which Monk thinks is a ridiculous idea. Until he sees fellow author Sintara Golden (Issa Rae) making it big with her novel. When the need for money arises to take care of his mother, Monk decides to bite the bullet and write a book (under a pseudonym name), and to his surprise, it becomes a best-seller.
As you can expect, Monk has to think of creative ways to defend his lie, remain hidden from public view and manage his personal life as old relationships end, new ones are formed and old truths emerge.
It's the characters that really make this film. Each of them is fully realised and played to perfection by the stellar cast. It’s an interesting commentary piece on the plight of the African American in regards to achieving success and not succumbing to labels and stereotypes. There aren’t many “white” characters in the film, but for the few that are, they are portrayed in all their Vanilla-goodness, if that makes sense?
Even with some of these racial stereotypes and
generalisations portrayed, the film gets past that, and helps us remember that
despite the colour of our skin, we’re all just people – trying to make our way
in the world, contribute something that matters and hang onto the people and
places that made us who we are.
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