Monk, which ran on USA Network from 2002-09, was the signature show of that network’s “Characters Welcome” era, which was full of light mysteries that emphasized quirky characters over deep, involved storylines. Fourteen years after the series ended, Emmy-winning star Tony Shalhoub is back as OCD-addled detective Adrian Monk in what is touted as his “Last Case”.
MR. MONK’S LAST CASE: A MONK MOVIE: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?
The Gist: Adrian Monk (Tony Shalhoub) is having a hard time being Adrian Monk right now. After seeing a scene from one of the many murders he solved for the San Francisco PD in the 2000s — along with a glimpse of his former assistant Sharona (Bitty Schram) — we see him in the current day in the office of his memoir’s publisher (Brooke Adams). Tired of Monk waxing rhapsodically over the oven he had in his apartment instead of of talking about his cases, and the fact that he hasn’t finished after a decade, she tells Monk that they’re going to take back the advance he got for the book.
One problem: He had earmarked the money to pay for a wedding for Molly (Caitlin McGee), the daughter of his late wife Trudy (Melora Hardin). They’ve grown close over the past fifteen years, and she took care of him during the pandemic — we see Monk sitting in a beekeeper suit, sipping smoothies through a hole in the mask. As he leaves the publisher’s office, he contemplates throwing himself out a window, but his vision of Trudy persuades him to take a moment and not give into the impulse.
But Monk isn’t done contemplating ending it all, and when his therapist, Dr. Neven Bell (Hector Elizondo), notes that he’s been refilling a prescription for Lorazepam, Monk denies he’s hoarding them to kill himself.
Molly’s wedding goes forward as a smaller affair, and she and Monk meet old friends Natalie Traeger (Traylor Howard), the assistant he had after Sharona left, and former SFPD lieutenant Randy Disher (Jason Gray-Stanford) at the airport. They want to meet Molly’s fiance, Griffin (Austin Scott), but he’s busy interviewing Rick Eden (James Purefoy), the world’s richest man.
Eden is testing the rocket that will launch him into space, and Griffin confronts him about the diving accident that killed his former business partner. In response, Eden offers Griffin the editor-in-chief position at a newspaper he just acquired. Griffin turns it down.
The day before Griffin and Molly get married, Griffin is measuring the bungee cord he’s going to use to go on his semiannual jump off a local bridge. He’s a meticulous, “measure twice and cut once” type, so he knows exactly how long of a cord he should use. But the next day, when he jumps off, the cord ends up being too long; he crashes to the ground and dies.
Molly is convinced that Griffin was murdered, and that Eden had something to do with it; she wants Monk to help her prove it. But Monk hasn’t worked on a case in quite some time, and doesn’t think there’s much evidence of foul play here. But when Molly recalls someone on the bridge saying the cord was “six feet too long,” Monk takes that specific info and starts his investigation.
The investigation eventually gets Monk, Natalie and Randy in front of Eden. For that, they have another old friend, Leland Stottlemeyer (Ted Levine), to thank. He retired from the SFPD and is now Eden’s head of security, a cushy position to say the least. He has doubts about Monk’s thought that Eden killed Griffin, but that may be more because he likes his retirement gig so much.
What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: Mr. Monk’s Last Case: A Monk Movie is, of course, based on the 2002-09 series Monk.
Performance Worth Watching: Tony Shalhoub won three Emmys playing Adrian Monk during the run of the original series, and he hasn’t missed a step in this movie, even though it’s been 14 years since the series ended.
Memorable Dialogue: There is more than one reference to the fact that, since the pandemic started, everyone has become more like Monk, wiping their hands, greeting each other with elbow bumps, etc. We were more interested in seeing Monk’s neuroses go out of control during the pandemic flashbacks, like the beekeeper suit, the cupboard full of used home COVID tests, etc. We also liked the gag where he brought his own hand sanitizer dispenser, complete with wheeled stand, to a public building.
Sex and Skin: None.
Our Take: Mr. Monk’s Last Case, written by Monk showrunner Andy Breckman and directed by Randy Zisk, shines when it concentrates on Monk and his many, many neuroses, as you might expect. Because of the pandemic and Monk’s crushing depression, his phobias and rituals are a bit more out of control than they usually are, and Shalhoub does his usual expert job at showing how Adrian Monk isn’t coming close to coping with it all.
It was also good to see old friends from the original series — Natalie, Sottlemeyer and Disher — and seeing Hardin coming back as the ghost of Trudy is always welcome. We just wish that the mystery Monk was trying to solve was at all intriguing. Purefoy does his best to make his rich tech bro bad guy seem like the manifestation of pure evil and greed, but there’s really nothing there.
The story itself moves very slowly, pausing for indulgent scenes where, for instance, Disher makes a model of the bridge out of Legos. While we wanted to see more about Monk, his relationship with Molly and how he slid into the depression that defines most of the episode, Breckman decided to fill the time with scenes that didn’t really feel germane to either the mystery or what was going on with Monk. It’s kind of surprising, given how well he knows the character, that we didn’t see more of his inner turmoil.
The big problem might be that the mystery itself, even though it was more of a Columbo-style “howdunit” instead of a whodunit, would have fit better in a standard 42-minute episode instead of a 97-minute movie. If the space was filled with what we described above, we might not have minded, but the indulgent, throat clearing scenes that ended up filling those gaps just made the movie come to a screeching halt.
Our Take: STREAM IT if you’re a Monk fan, mainly because Mr. Monk’s Final Case: A Monk Movie has all the stuff you liked about the original series, albeit in an expanded, dragged-out format. But if you’re just in the mood for an intriguing light mystery to watch, you should look elsewhere.
Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.
