Yeah. As I said before, my suspicion is that it was a considerably longer film (hopefully, a more coherent one) which had to be hastily re-edited after test screenings. Goodness knows it was long enough anyway.

You may well be right regarding the chimp sub-plot. Its only real contribution to the main story is (I think) to establish Jupe's memory of the incident as unreliably narrated (the shoe standing on end), thus allowing him to believe that looking at Jean Jacket - as he believes he did to Gordy - will establish a relationship. This in contrast to OJ's horse-whispery instincts giving him the understanding that he shouldn't look at it directly. I liked Em's part in the ending - the motorbike dash, the untethering of the balloon and her use of the bottom-of-the-well camera. OJ's reappearance was just daft, but put there to complete the family's (and by extension, African-Caribbean peoples') relationship with the Muybridge photographs.

I spent some time reading audience reviews, and although there is a substantial smattering (if that's a thing) of one-star reviews, the majority are three-star and above with, probably, a modal value, if not a majority, of five-stars. I saw, more than once, the view that this was the best film they have ever seen. Considering the top-billed films at multiplexes over the last few years, this may be true.

I still think that the film, as it is in the cinema, is shockingly edited and has some bizarre choices made in the story line. But, I have seen many worse, and if a director's cut appeared I would be curious to watch it.