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| 1/21/2004 |
| Monster: Theron is one Twisted Sister |
A Movie Review
by Wes Bennett
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In my experience, most true stories about violent crimes or at least films about serial killers turn out to be pretty good. They almost always have compelling characters and provide a refreshing distraction from cookie-cutter genre films. (Think “Bully” or even the fictional “American Psycho”) That being said, the premise of “Monster” about a hooker with a lesbian lover who went on a killing spree in Florida, sounded highly intriguing. Better yet, it featured the usually gorgeous Charlize Theron in heavy makeup and 30 pounds over her regular weight. Surpassing my expectations, the film took a somewhat sympathetic view of it’s characters and provided a serious and thought provoking look at a killer’s downward spiral.
“Monster” chronicles the nine month period in 1989 and 1990 when Aileen Wuornos (Theron) a highway prostitute in Florida, murdered seven men, effectively becoming “America’s first female serial killer.”
On the brink of suicide, she falls in love with Selby Wall (Christina Ricci), a helpless, sad-eyed lesbian from a religious family. Because she is raped and abused by a customer that she kills in self-defense, she vows never work the streets again. After a highly ineffective attempt to get a straight job, she is forced to go back to hooking on the highway so she can fulfill her dream of earning enough money to get Selby and herself a “normal” lifestyle.
The rest of the crimes are caused by Aileen's extreme hatred for prostitution and a resentment of men triggered from a lifetime's worth of abuse and disrespect. As the body count starts to mount, each new murder seems necessary to cover the tracks leading from the previous one. Selby doesn't ask too many questions about the money and cars that Aileen brings home. Does she know that Aileen has started to murder her clients? Probably, but it’s easier for her to pretend that she doesn’t.
I found “Monster” to be a very depressing film. I was really involved with the characters and I felt like I understood how they had fewer and fewer options to choose from. Not that they were justified in their killing, but the film made me understand the horrors that a prostitute must undertake and how quickly society can turn its back on you.
There were a number of great scenes, such as when Aileen fails miserably to get a real job. It reminded me of the characters from “Boogie Nights” who were simply not qualified to do anything else other than porn. I also enjoyed the scene where Aileen and Selby are at a skating rink, slow dancing and then making out to Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believing.”
The film does a very good job of providing balance. We don’t feel bad that Aileen gets executed at the end, but the movie is too smart to just label her as “evil” and leave it at that. Life pushed her into a far corner and at some point there was little else that she could do, even though she really did want to change.
I suppose one theme of the film is asking us what kind of monster Wuornos is: the vile, soulless criminal that stalks innocent victims, or the rejected and misunderstood creatures that society itself creates like “Frankenstein” or the spurned kids who end up shooting people at schools. These debates could even boil down to a liberal vs conservative view of crime, or whether you blame social pressures and motivations instead of responsibility and morals. Really, it’s easy for most people to condemn criminals as they sit isolated from all hardship with their money and comfortable lives. However reprehensible her actions seem to us, we really don’t know what we would do unless we experienced, first hand, her desperate situation.
But as we learned from “Elephant,” easy answers, while the most satisfying, are rarely those containing the greatest amounts of truth. This is a film with a story, concerned much less with shocking audiences than with showing how a brutalized childhood can result in a brutal adult.
Theron’s performance is remarkable, and I would argue that this is the best by an actress this year because she is forced to act during virtually every frame of the film. Naomi Watts or Jennifer Connelly, although also incredible, were essentially playing “normal” people with addictions who slowly self-destruct. But Theron plays a highly colorful, white-trash, hooker with all sorts of bravado, guts and heart. She never had a second to be herself, because the character was so far away from how she normally looks and acts.
Theron uses her size to show us a big woman who's comfortable with herself. She nails the confident walk and attitude that a woman of the street would have to project. But underneath the cocky exterior there is a deep insecurity that is always on the verge of showing itself.
Because of Theron, and by demanding that we consider what role society may have played in the murders, “Monster” is a compelling, thought-provoking, and ultimately unsettling drama that should not be missed. |
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| "We use words like honor, code, loyalty. We use these words as the backbone of a life spent defending something. You use them as a punchline. I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to a man who rises and sleeps under the blanket of the very freedom I provide, then question the manner in which I provide it." |
- Jack Nicholson
A Few Good Men
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Distributed Beers
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| 5 |
Sierra Nevada Bigfoot |
| 4 |
Guinness Draught |
| 3 |
Newcastle Brown Ale |
| 2 |
Bass Pale Ale |
| 1 |
Samuel Adams Boston Lager |
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