THE MONSTER

In the follow-up to his hugely successful “Johnny Stecchino,” Roberto Benigni fashions an hilarious slapstick comedy-cum-crime story from a ratherr gruesome premise: a man wanted as a serial murderer. The police seem to think he is “the monster” behind a series of brutal sex slayings. Loris (Benigni) is one of life's true oddballs. His out-to-lunch everyday antics culminate in surveillance by the police, whose suspicions are further aroused by a farcical misadventure involving a supposed nymphomaniac and an out-of-control chainsaw. Soon he is the subject of an elaborate sting operation. Its success hinges upon a comely young policewoman who moves in with him to seduce him to the point of arrestibility. This leads to some of the film's most riotous scenes, as Loris tries valiantly not to get turned on by even her most erotic anitcs. Benigni's on-the-mark timing and uncannily graceful pratfalls (Fellini once compared Benigni's work to that of Stan Laurel and Buster Keaton) make this a particularly hiarious work of urban satire.