A mysterious miracle is at the heart of this absorbing and superbly acted film from the Italian director Andrea Pallaoro, which refuses the cliched “issue movie” beats of confrontation, catharsis and resolution. Like his previous work Hannah, which starred Charlotte Rampling as the haunted, troubled woman of that name, Monica is marked by its cool compositional rigour: scenes from a life are evoked with studied, often wordless vignettes and middle-distance shots from fixed camera positions, combined occasionally with looming, asymmetrical closeups.
Trans performer Trace Lysette plays Monica, who has an income from sex work and who, perhaps for professional reasons, has cultivated a coolly resonant, pleasingly modulated voice, which nonetheless rises to anger in various phone conversations of which we hear just one side: conversations with her partner or with clients who let her down. She is now experiencing a traumatic breakup, worsened by troubling news from home. Monica’s mother Eugenia (Patricia Clarkson) is in the final stages of a condition involving dementia, being cared for in the luxurious family house from which Monica was thrown out as a teen. Her brother Paul (Joshua Close) and his wife Laura (Emily Browning) and their children are now helping, as is the housekeeper Leticia (Adriana Barraza). Of course, Eugenia does not recognise this new visitor but is apparently content to let Monica take part in the caring process.
