Monster (2004, DVD)

Monster is the story of Aileen Wuornos, a prostitute from Florida who has served 12 years on death row and recently executed for brutally murdering 6 men, men who picked her up for sexual favors. Charlize Theron is transformed into this woman who is as complex and deadly as she is fascinating, Theron delivering one of the most powerful performances in recent memory. Here is my take on Monster.

The Players:

Aileen Wuornos - Charlize Theron
Selby - Christina Ricci
Thomas - Bruce Dern

The Play:

Having had a really rough childhood, coming from a really dysfunctional family with a history of murder, Aileen Wuornos has been on her own from early childhood with no positive adult influence, Born in Michigan she eventually found her way to Florida and became a hooker from an early age. We are introduced to her in a montage of her early life narrated by Theron and jump into her current unattractive lifestyle. Being hard up on herself, Aileen basically is searching for a person to love and respect her for who she is but finds herself kicked to the curb and soon forgotten. She frequents a bar in town and drinks herself into a drunken stupor.

One night she meets Selby (Ricci), a teenager in her late teens who is lesbian. Selby is having her own issues trying to deal with her parents disapproval of her lifestyle choices and that instills fear in her, fear of finding her true happiness at the expense of her parents disowning her. Aileen and Selby soon become good friends and eventually lovers and each one presents the other with something they need, for Aileen it s a person who sees her true beauty and likes her for who she is, for Selby it is the older adult who accepts her lifestyle and who will take care of her. They decide to run off together and start their own life.

One fateful night Aileen is driving with a client onto the woods and he proceeds to assault her and physically abuse her, her rapes her and has intentions to kill her. Aileen gets a hold of a gun and shoots him dead.
She returns home as if nothing happened and their life continues as normal. The case makes the papers but there are no leads.

After the incident, Aileen becomes dead set on murdering more of her clients, she is looking for those clients who like to have rough sex as the potential victims, part of the reasoning behind her actions is the power trip, the fact she is being disrespected, and the fact she comes off with a lot of their money and a car to help support her life with Selby. As time goes on and Selby finds out they are both on the run from the law, but their luck would run out as Aileen is caught and the rest is history.

The Good:

There are not enough words to describe Theron s performance. Seeing her and seeing a photo of the real Wuornos, she embodies the life of Wuornos to perfection. Not only is the makeup job superb, but the emotional range and the power of her performance deserve a serious Oscar consideration. This role propels Theron into the elite of Hollywood actresses, I was really happy to see her take a real risk with this role and tarnish her reputation as a Hollywood goddess, a role that would actually make critics eat their words. Theron displays a wide range of emotions ranging from anger to fear to despair to happiness, she is just perfect. The story is a very intriguing one, it is a biographical account of the real story and it is pretty accurate to my understanding. The relationship intertwined with the murders works well as the love affair adds dimension to the story and shows the softer side of Aileen s personality. The pacing of the movie is good, it moves just right throughout and the realism of the film is haunting, it will absorb each viewer. Bruce Dern is good in a limited role as Aileen s friend at the bar and on the street, a man who knows her lifestyle and provides a bit of parental type support to a troubled woman.

The Bad:

This movie is very graphic in nature and might be too intense and disturbing for some. There are scenes of killing that will make you wince and sigh, they are powerful and gruesome. I thought Ricci as Selby was overshadowed by the monumental performance by Theron, she did not really bring life to her character, she is a fine looking young actress but her acting is as dead as her role in The Addams Family, except for a few scenes at the end where she exudes some emotions she has a weak role made weaker by the great role of Theron.

Overall Grade:

3.7 of 5