'Your Monster' is a shapeshifting beast of a rom-com

Things get hairy for Melissa Barrera in Caroline Lindy's debut.

Like the 2250-calorie Classic Appetizer combo at Applebee’s, Caroline Lindy’s “Your Monster” has a little something for everyone. Comedy? Yep. Romance? Sure. Horror? Uh huh. Backstage musical theater melodrama? Yes, actually, and a lot more of it than one might expect.

Whether these flavors all mesh together, or sit uncomfortably next to each other on the plate like the boneless chicken wings and the mozzarella sticks, is up for debate. While I admired the sheer variety, some viewers will be understandably frustrated that there’s not enough of their favorite to make a satisfying meal out of. (This concludes the Applebee’s metaphor.)

Melissa Barrera (“In The Heights”) plays Laura, a New York actress, who has taken a series of body blows to her life in the past year. She’s diagnosed with cancer, and while in the hospital, her theater director boyfriend Jacob (Edmund Donovan) dumps her. Even worse, after she’s recovered and comes home from the hospital, Laura discovers that Jacob has taken the musical they’ve been workshopping to Broadway without her.

Devastated, Laura moves into her mother’s empty apartment to nurse her wounds. In the closet of her old bedroom, she discovers that the imaginary monster she used to fear when she was a girl is still living there. Dubbed Monster (Tommy Dewey), he looks like the younger brother to Disney’s Beast, and despite his sharp claws and leonine features, is more of a smartass than a real threat. 

Monster has enjoyed living rent-free in Laura’s old room, and wants her out of the house. Her fear grows into annoyance at this shaggy carpetbagger, and their relationship goes from predator-prey to wary roommates, then friends. Although the backstory that Lindy gives the characters is surprisingly thin, Barrera and Dewey have a fun, edgy chemistry between them, and it’s believable when they take their relationship to the next level.

You’d think having a romance between a woman and a monster would be enough for a movie (it was enough for Disney, twice). But “Your Monster” spends a lot of time at the theater, where a defiant Laura auditions and gets a role in the ensemble in their play over Jacob’s protestations. Envious of the glamorous movie actress (Meghann Fahy) who got the lead role written for her, Laura seethes from the wings.

I suppose having the rehearsal scenes of the musical numbers makes full use of Barrera’s talents as a singer, but I felt itchy for “Your Monster” to get back to Monster, who is by far the most interesting character in the movie. Dewey, who played the brother on Hulu’s underrated “Casual,” played Monster in Lindy’s original 2020 short “Your Monster,” and he’s really a hoot as the quippy beast.

Just when “Your Monster” felt like a wasted opportunity, it takes a hard swerve in the last 20 minutes that justifies its R rating. It’ll throw some viewers who thought they were getting a fuzzy (and furry) rom-com, but it is definitely a choice, and I admired the big swing. 

The movie could have used a little more of that edge throughout. Why have a Monster in your movie if you’re going to keep his claws retracted?

“Your Monster” opens Friday in theaters. In Madison, it will play at AMC Fitchburg 18, Marcus Point and Marcus Palace.