It's possible to read the entirety of The Monkey's Mask as an elaborate allegory for a lesbian's cautious exploration of the heterosexual world. In fact, it's almost necessary to do so; interpreting the film's fairly conventional murder mystery through a veil of metaphor makes it easier to ignore the plot holes, the baffling inconsistencies, and the self-consciously arty pretentiousness of the whole endeavor. Susie Porter stars as a fragile but butch lesbian private investigator who gets involved in the disappearance of a gothette poetry groupie (Abbie Cornish) who was known for her own poetry's reliance on crude anatomical terms. Porter tracks Cornish to a poetry class taught by willowy blonde professor Kelly McGillis, then temporarily forgets about the case as she and McGillis begin an affair that seems to center on posing naked in various configurations and unconsciously re-enacting scenes from The Hunger. Eventually, Porter gets back on the job, visiting a bookstore and a local open-mic night, where she meets various poets/suspects who later blink in and out of the story seemingly at random. Fortunately, everyone seems to have a convenient telepathic sense of how to find each other, not that that helps the plodding pace of Samantha Lang's direction. The Monkey's Mask's early scenes maintain an abstract, languid ambiance, as Porter glides pensively around in her own private world, backed by poetic narration that colorfully interprets what she sees and feels. Later, the film forgets to follow up on this conceit, but keeps the dreamy poetic tone, which blends awkwardly with the predictable, if somewhat sloppy, potboiler storyline. Mask's dreamy quality, logical flaws, and occasionally surreal scenes do support the idea that it's all just a metaphor. In one baffling segment, Porter visits a friend of Cornish's, who instantly forgets the detective's existence and wanders off to have noisy, off-screen sex. Porter is left free to roam the house, pawing through drawers and having a wistful moment alone with some of Cornish's books. It's simply unfathomable that this could be intended as a plausible scenario rather than a fantasy, and similarly, it's hard to believe that The Monkey's Mask was meant to be taken at face value.