Monster (2004, DVD)

The life of Aileen Wuornos was a life that was never very pleasant. "Monster," which stars Charlize Theron as Wuornos, is the portrait of an abused woman who snaps and goes on a killing spree that eventually led to her arrest, and, in 2002, her execution. Lee, as she was called by the people who knew her, had spent most of her adult life as a prostitute in Florida. She didn't have much success at that line of work, and wound up living in a storage shed with the help of her friend Tom (Bruce Dern). One rainy night where she did no business, she stopped in a gay bar to get dry. It's there that Lee makes the acquaintance of Selby Wall (Christina Ricci), the gay daughter of a minister forced out of her home. Selby, though, was taken in by other relatives. She sees the lost soul in Lee and offers to share her pitcher of beer with Lee. Lee makes it clear that she's not gay, which Selby understands. Selby makes it just as clear that she's just looking for a friend, for she hasn't found one. Selby takes her home and shares her bed with Lee, where nothing but sleep happens.

It's the relationship with Selby that inspires Lee to try and make an honest living. Unfortunately, Lee has never done much honest work, and her lack of education and experience shows. She tries to keep her head up as she's rejected by one employer after another, but one fateful encounter after a failed interview brings home the reality of how society perceives her - and, more importantly, how she perceives herself. However, Lee tries to hide her failure from Selby while she goes back to the business she knows. Selby leaves her relatives and goes to live with Lee. Desperate for money and tired of abuse, Lee goes too far with a man who goes to far with her. She goes into her purse and empties a gun into him. She leaves his body and his car, but takes his wallet. She falls into a pattern of luring men to their deaths, and in some cases, steals the cars of the men she's killed. Selby, who's still trying to learn what makes ends meet in the adult world, draws criticism from Lee for frivolous spending and for doing other things in a somewhat careless manner. It's a combination of carelessness on the parts of both Lee and Selby that lead to Lee's eventual downfall.

"Monster" reminds me a lot of another based-on-fact movie - Kimberly Pierce's 1999 drama "Boys Don't Cry." Teena Brandon, who spent her final years living as a man named Brandon Teena, had a troubled life, much like Aileen Wuornos. Both did things that sealed their fates, though Brandon was no serial killer, like Wuornos. Both were women who were lost in a world where acceptance was nearly impossible. The difference is that Wuornos didn't just kill those who abused her. She killed one man who offered to help her, and the only thing that ended her killing spree was her apprehension. Wuornos had changed from a woman who tried to make money into someone who took the money and the lives of any man who stopped on the highway for her. Wuornos's rampage, for some, will make her a less than sympathetic character.

Theron, however, gives a riveting and Oscar-winning performance as Wuornos. She has the look of a woman who's at a loss for a way out of her life. She doesn't know where she'll get her next meal or next drink. When she speaks, she rambles from the course of her original point. Her life is virtually devoid of friends, and no family is in sight. She finds common ground with Selby when it comes to their life situation. Both have been cast out from their homes, though Selby does have other family members who do care about her. In fact, Selby's aunt warns her niece that Lee can't - and won't - offer the love Selby wants. However, they do what they can to care about one another. Lee gives Selby a stern lecture at one point about frivolous spending, but also shows understanding, as she's been there quite often. The role of Lee also gives Theron the opportunity for some comedy. When she makes a home with Selby, she decides to go out and get a job. She goes out on a bicycle with the sort of enthusiasm that should come from someone Selby's age. I can't think of any other role that has given the Theron the opportunity to show her range. Theron and Ricci create a sad, but sympathetic, odd couple. Ricci once again shows how dependable and dynamic a performer she is as Selby. Even as she learns the truth about her new friend, Selby still wants to help Lee by any legal means possible. She has taken the lessons from her upbringing and applied them to Lee.

Writer-director Patty Jenkins filmed "Monster" along the stretches of Florida's I-95 where Wuornos worked. That adds to the overall dreariness of the tale. In this tale, Jenkins presents a compelling case against the death penalty. Jenkins doesn't gloss over the heinous and disturbing nature of Aileen Wuornos's killings, but Jenkins does show that Wuornos seldom received any good break from life. She had started in her dark road of life against her will at the hands of an abusive father. The biggest breaks she received in the course of the film were her encounter with Selby and her arrest. The longer Wuornos was on the loose, the more she dismissed men as evil. Even though her body still functioned, Wuornos was on a one-way trip out of reality. Malice was clearly behind the killings, but forethought is dubious in her case.

Without a doubt, Aileen Wuornos did become one of the most notorious criminals of recent history. Through Theron, we watch her become the title character in the movie "Monster," and become witness to her tragic downfall. Jenkins leaves the viewer to decide how much of the monster was Wuornos's doing, and how much was the result of the mistreatment she received throughout her life. In the end, Wuornos showed she was not only a threat to the public, but she was also a threat to herself. Through a look at her final years of freedom, we see that Wuornos's life was filled with more trouble than most people. Others will view Wuornos as a monster, but in "Monster," she was forced to deal with even bigger monsters than the one she became. Like some of the ones she faced, she paid the ultimate price for facing them. Even though her death sentence cannot be undone, Jenkins makes the case that, perhaps, a life without the possibility of parole would have sufficed.