"No monster should amaze us if the normal man does not amaze." - Gilbert Chesterton Hal Hartly directs "No Such Thing". Poorly executed, the film nevertheless has a VERY interesting screenplay. It stars Sarah Polley as Beatrice, an overly innocent/pure journalist trapped in a fairy tale world teeming with vulgar, opportunistic, horrible schemers. Everyone's a terrible person, except little Beatrice, who upon learning that her fiancé has disappeared in Iceland, goes searching for him.En route to Iceland - a country chosen because of its rich mythology - Beatrice's plane crashes (or, indeed, it may be that it is her fiancé's plane which has crashed). From this point onwards the film becomes a sort of hallucination, a dreamy fantasy informed by Beatrice's own subconscious. And so tied down to a hospital bed, Beatrice spins the tale of a monster living in Iceland who "destroys humans" and who has "destroyed her fiancé". Hartly's intention here, of course, is to highlight how there is "no such thing as monsters", that we "create monsters" out of our own anxieties, preconceptions, prejudices etc. In Beatrice's case, she creates the monster as a personification of all the world's injustices.But the script gets more interesting. Whilst the monster has been created by outsiders as a means of explaining a kind of all-encompassing "cosmic" persecution, the monster itself is relentlessly persecuted. Later in the film the monster is destroyed because it "can't withstand information" and "exists between the cracks of reality and perception". Monsters – and the term "monster" here applies to any "Other" (the film was released in 2001, when America's Monster swiftly became vague, bearded Middle Easterners) – therefore evaporate once their generators learn enough to understand "them", empathise with "them", or learn "their" history.What's weird is that the monster also exists outside of Beatrice's fantasy segment. The film opens with a coda in which the Monster records a tape in which it complains about God, the universe and what it perceives to be the inherent meaninglessness/cruelty of life and men. The rest of film looks at sleazy media types, traitorous villagers and scuzzy human beings, all selfish, backstabbing and exploitative. This horrible portrayal of the world is a result, via projection, of the Monster's own persecution; it's as much his fantasy as he is Beatrice's. Like a feedback loop, what the film suggests is that Beatrice is as much an idealized image as the monster is – she's the monster's projection, an angel, the promise of bliss – and that the vulgar chaos of society/media/news/art etc create "monsters" as much as they themselves become "monsters" as a response to this chaotic "outside". The film ends with Beatrice looking at us. She's the last thing the monster sees, we're the last thing she sees, the audience positioned as beasts.7.5/10 – Worth one viewing.

I want to nominate for the Obscure Movie of the Month...No Such thing.A delightful and imaginative 'monster movie' that sent me immediately to IMDb to give it my 10 points where I was glad but not surprised to see that I was not in the minority Where do I start to explain a horror movie that has no comparison except *maybe* Beauty and the Beast ?In a America where terrorists regularly load dynamite on to the Manhattan bridge and subways are routinely evacuated because of nerve gas releases a young unappreciated journalist is allowed by her chain smoking, sensation seeking news editor, played with aplomb by Helen Mirren, to go to Iceland in search of her missing fiancé, a camera crew member, only to wind up the lone survivor of a trans Atlantic airplane crash and pieced back together by doctors. Once healed some six months later she resumes her journey and the search for her fiancé. Arriving in an obscure region of Iceland she is told by the villagers that her boy friend was killed by 'the Monster' a potty mouthed, hard drinking, remorseless creature who cannot die.Together they come to America. You ain't seen nothing quite like this.Whoever thought of this story (writer/director Hal Hartley) has some imagination and I will be looking for more of his work.Bravissimo !!!

Really, the music makes the film. I have always thought grew films have a similar rhythm to music. This is no exception.Not as deep as other Hal Hartley films (Girl From Monday is awesome!) but it has that rhythm.BUT! How does a girl at co-ordinates 48.72W 38.50N end up in a hospital in Iceland? The location is so close to the US or Canada, is MILES away from Iceland, and yet, she ends up there. Weird. And the route, no matter where it would have crashed, would be closer to anywhere else except Iceland. Never understood that.Still Hal puts us to the test with his film style, people and cars criss-crossing at every opportunity, the music. The usual. Hal is a terrific director.After reading jshoaf's review 12 April 2008, I am further enlightened. I stand corrected on Hal's depth.

The monster looks like he just stepped out of the terrific 1972 TV movie "Gargoyles". Unfortunately "No Such Thing" is not such a terrific movie. It is way too long for such a simple story. Beauty discovers monster. Beauty brings monster to civilization. Beauty returns monster to his island. The script is very contrived and parts of it seem simply added for length. Sara Polly comes off as not likable, not sympathetic, and not believable. The Iceland photography is the best part of the film, but you don't need an hour and forty three minutes of "No Such Thing", just rent a travel DVD. What a wonderful actress like Helen Mirren is doing in this mess I have no idea, and she seems lost in a sea of nonsense. Not Recommended. - MERK