Monster (2003)
…………………………………………………
Monster Movie Review
Monster is a 2003 crime biopic film directed by Patty Jenkins and starring Charlize Theron and Christina Ricci. It’s somewhat problematic of a movie, but still very strong.
………………………………………………….
“People always look down their noses at hookers.
Never give you a chance,
because they think you took the easy way out,
when no one could imagine the willpower it took to do what we do“
…………………………………………………..
…………………………………………………..
Shortly after moving to Florida, longtime prostitute Aileen Wuornos meets young and reserved Selby Wall and a romance blossoms. When a man attempts to brutalize Aileen, she kills him and resolves to give up prostitution. But supporting herself and her new girlfriend through legitimate means proves extremely difficult, and she soon falls back on old ways. More men die, and Selby can’t help but think her new friend is responsible.
This is of course a biographical film about one of America’s biggest serial killers, and she is the only woman on that infamous list. And there lies my biggest problem with it. It doesn’t glorify her, but it sure enough empathizes with her way too much. It is dangerous to do that when she was simply a horrible human being, and in particular she went extremely crazy toward the end of her life, and that not being shown here was very questionable.
Though overly sympathetic in its approach, the movie is still hugely effective in more than a couple of areas. I personally loved the crime scenes with that one scene where she saved that clumsy guy being the best one. Watching her conflicted behavior was very tense and powerful there.
I also found the film’s exploration of what makes serial killers very well done. Yes, it may be too sympathetic of a portrayal, but Aileen did have a horrible upbringing, not many chances to succeed at a job at all and most of the men were terrible to her. That all led to her losing her mind and starting killing men. To me, it doesn’t excuse her, but it at least gives us an explanation of why she would do those terrible things. And it’s important to talk about this stuff.
…………………………………………………..
…………………………………………………..
And the film very much succeeds as a lesbian romance because it’s actually moving and wonderful in that area as the relationship between these two women is touching, very well portrayed and complex. The film was quite romantic in the first act, and quite emotional later on when they separate.
The movie is a two-woman show, and it’s a great showcase for both of these actresses. Yes, Christina Ricci often gets forgotten in these reviews, but she is phenomenal in her role here. She entirely made this ditzy, honestly very dumb girl believable. Her confusion and infatuation with Aileen are so well portrayed.
But of course this is a major Charlize Theron vehicle. She not only gave her career-best performance, but also one of the greatest performances of this entire decade. Yes, the make-up, her gained weight and everything added to her looking like Aileen, but her acting itself is amazing. Her conflicts, her emotional outbursts, her mental illness and her feeling guilty. That was all very clearly portrayed with Theron’s skillful, magnetic performance. She proved here that she can be an amazing actress and it’s a shame she doesn’t get more such showy roles.
…………………………………………………..
…………………………………………………..
Monster was also a showcase for Patty Jenkins as her feature debut that later on led to her getting the ‘Wonder Woman’ gig. I personally find her direction here good, but not great as the film is a typical biopic at times. It’s well paced though, and overall it looks good, but technically it’s nothing truly special.
Monster is undoubtedly very questionable in its sympathetic portrayal of Aileen Wuornos and it is problematic in the things that it ignored to portray, but it does explore very well what led to her horrible crimes, and it succeeds in both its crime elements and as a moving lesbian romance. Christina Ricci is very good here, but it is Charlize Theron who acted out her every conflict, guilt, outburst and mental illness with incredible skills, leading to what is one of the greatest acting performances of this decade.
