Monster (2003)

Simply Perfect

Save your money for something good and enjoyable

Good movie but grossly overrated

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

One of the hardest things to do is made a typically unsympathetic character sympathetic. Monster deals with a famous serial killer from the early 1990's who believed she was killing for good reasons. Finding a way to write a direct such a character so that the audience doesn't automatically despise your lead is a difficult thing to do. Patty Jenkins and Charlize Theron found a way to do just that with Aileen Wuornos. The story deals with Aileen, who has had a rough life to say the least. She's been a prostitute since an early teen, physically abused by her family, and has been homeless for years ever since being kicked out of her home. Just by hearing that, there's at least some sense of pity I feel for her. This all leads to her meeting Selby Wall (based on Tyria Moore). The film portrays both of them at a rough patch in their life, which makes it all the more timely that they meet each other. After a relatively sweet romance for the first 40 minutes of the film, Aileen begins her crime spree. We may never know exactly how it all went down, but if she originally killed first victim because he was raping her and likely going to murder her, then I can feel a lot of sympathy towards her. As I said, Jenkins makes a choice to present Aileen as a victim herself, but that changes about halfway through. But I really appreciate the balance Jenkins gives to the crimes. They aren't faceless crimes without purpose, she's doing them for love and because her life is close to worthless without the money she's getting. By no means does that dismiss her from having any guilt, as no one should be murdered, but you can begin to understand her mindset just a little bit. It doesn't hurt that you have a great actress like Charlize Theron to build your film around, as she earned an Oscar for her turn as Aileen. It was well deserved I may add. Overall, Monster is a fascinating movie to get inside of a murderous psychopath, but it's more the moments of humanity in Aileen that stand out the most.7.4/10

In other hands, 'Monster' could easily have been overwrought, overly-sadistic, over-sentimental and too heavy on the melodrama, which would have done an interesting and more complex-than-one-would-think serial killer an injustice.'Monster' however turned out to be a near-flawless film, that has a real sense of the time, the brutality of the crimes and also the case's complexity. The story of Aileen Wuornos here is told here as more than just a serial killer film, it is instead a powerful film told with harrowing chills and tender humanity with Wuornos herself portrayed as more than just a monster without being glorified or over-humanised.An earth-shattering, career-best performance from Charlize Theron as Wuornos helps enormously, a performance that goes way beyond changing her appearance completely by gaining weight and using dental prosthetics to the point of being unrecognisable and is one of gentle compassion and frightening coldness. This may sound oxymoronic, but it isn't, it means that what could easily have been a one-dimensional portrait of Wuornos is given surprising complexity by Theron.She is superbly supported by an understated Christina Ricci, though one wishes that her character had a little more development and was more vividly drawn. The supporting cast all round are strong, if not burning in the memory as much or as long as Theron. 'Monster' is directed beautifully by Patty Jenkins, and the production values are similarly terrific especially in the gritty and classy cinematography that perfectly captures the dark subject matter. The music is used sparely but when used is very evocative of the period.Further advantages are an intelligent and beautifully-constructed screenplay, that balances Wuornos' character with aplomb and the different mood components with equal adeptness, and a continually gripping story that is frightfully rich in atmosphere and mood.Overall, truly excellent film especially for Theron, that avoids all the potential pitfalls it could easily have done in other hands. 9/10 Bethany Cox

I was not even ten when this movie came out. But seeing promotional material was quite disturbing and I had a hunch that if I were to see that I wouldn't be able to handle it. My parents didn't even allow me either. Fast-forward years later to a time where I am an adult and nothing phases me, I decided to watch Monster because I never forgot the acclaim it received. I shouldn't say that nothing phases me, sometimes movies do depress me, but Monster is one of the few films that really packs a punch. Charlize Theron is the best in this, but I was also surprised at how much more the movie had to offer other than her embodiment.The only flaws I would like to point out are the lack of facts given to the backstory of infamous serial killer and protagonist of the film, Aileen Wuornos. Not much is said about her early criminal activity and violent behaviour prior to the movie's timeline, including a failed marriage that she had when she was 20. The movie treats Aileen as if the murder of her first john was when her reign of terror began. Well, that's Hollywood for you! Luckily the changes made aren't that bad and don't effect the overall experience much. Aileen Wuoronos was a woman from an abusive family who had a long criminal record, a very early pregnancy and severe abuse and mistreatment from everyone around her. She never experienced any love, and that takes a toll on her mental health and perception of the world around her. Charlize Theron transforms herself into Aileen in ways that must seem painful and plays her to a t. Her wide-eyes, trembling, and deep stares, and overwhelming emotion really make this such a hard character to play. But Theron does it and does it right. Wuornos moves to a town in Florida where she stumbles into a gay bar and meets unhappy lesbian, Selby. Christina Ricci always captivates the audience with her performances, with her role as Selby being added to the list. Although not as good as Theron, Ricci is still great. Apparently, Selby was not the real person involved with Aileen because of permission purposes. I don't think much difference would have been made if they used the real girl involved with Aileen.Aileen and Selby are the only good people that each other has known for quite some time. Selby is living with family friends who are not supportive of her sexuality. And I already stressed Aileen's loss of hope. Although Aileen is not a lesbian, it is the emotional comfort that she finds in Selby that leads to anything sexual. The first john that Aileen kills is the most disturbing part of the film. She is beaten, raped, and is about to be raped hard to certain death before she is able to make an escape and kill him in self- defence. She then quits prostitution and hunts for real jobs to support her and Selby. Her lack of qualifications, criminal record, and unprofessionalism cause her to fail the interviews and she returns to prostitution. She goes on to kill more johns and steal their money, some of the johns of whom aren't even violent. But she is reminded of before and is determined to provide. Complications with the johns arise and loyalty with Selby becomes tested, which leads Aileen's to life in behind bars before being executed in 2002.I have seen Youtube videos of the real Aileen and it is more than evident that she was mentally ill. Instead of jail, she should have been in an insane asylum. She is scary in some videos, but it's not her fault. She is the perfect example of somebody suffering from the Battered Woman Syndrome. And, I can't express enough just how amazing and convincing Charlize Theron is. But aside from her, everybody is mighty fine. And the writing was great too. It wasn't a picture full of just crying and yelling and rape. There's actual layers, and juice...themes. Some of these are primary components that lots of these depressing factual films lack. Monster is an amazing and compelling movie about acceptance and love. It may be a sad watch, but it is definitely worth it.

When you see Aileen Wuornos and hear that she is a Daytona Beach prostitute and serial killer, you would probably expect her to be absolutely out of her mind. And you'd be right, to some extent, but you wouldn't expect that she had big dreams at one point in life, and all she really wanted to do was have one person to love. In fact when she seemed to almost accidentally stumble into becoming a prostitute at a young age, when she dreamed of becoming rich and famous, and expected to just stumble into fame as well. Soon enough she had become a full blown hooker, and she seemed to do the same when she became a serial killer. And Charlize Theron seems to completely inhabit this human being with a damaged soul. She not only physically transformed herself, but mentally as well. She is not the beautiful Charlize Theron that we've seen before. All of the performances in the film are fantastic, but Charlize Theron completely becomes this new person and there's almost no other performance in film that matches her's in this oneSo Aileen's downfall started out when she was trying to get money to share with her new girlfriend, Selby Wall. She was "hooking" and happened to get into the wrong man's car. She got into the car of a sadistic psychopath, and he rapes her and tortures her, and definitely would've killed her if she didn't kill him first. She hides this from Selby, because she knows Selby is like the old Aileen. Selby believes people are good and Aileen doesn't want to take that away from her. She tries to quit hooking, but discovers she has dug herself too deep into a hole she can't get out of. After being raped and almost murdered, then being rejected by every job because of her lack of credentials, she begins to lose hope in herself. She finally confesses that she murdered the man to Selby, and decides to go back to hooking. But, when she gets in the car with the next man, she seems more nervous, more paranoid. The editing becomes closer and quicker, with intense music in the background, just like it did when she killed the first man. Suddenly she kills the man. She is then at home with Selby, and this is when the guilt begins to eat away at her, but it got them money, and the money gave them happiness, so she continues to kill. We see that she first needs to convince herself that the person is bad in order to kill him, and if she can't do that, she can't kill him. But she begins to kill nicer people, one of them a man that she thinks is out to get her because he has a gun, when it is only revealed that he is a cop. Next she gets in the car of a man that is a genuinely nice person with a family, who doesn't want to hook up with her, yet when he sees her pistol, she feels that she has to kill him, even though she doesn't want to. This is the most painful scene in the movie. From there it is all downhill for Aileen and Selby, and it all culminates to one heartbreaking phone call between Selby and Aileen, when it pans over to show cops in the same room listening to Selby, revealing that Selby is turning her in by getting a confession from her.Was she a bad person? Yes. But she was also genuinely scarred and damaged from a horrible childhood. We learn she was kicked out of her house, beat by her dad, and raped at the age of 8, among other things, yet for a long while she truly believed in herself and that things would get better. The truth is, in the end, all she really wanted was to be with the one person she ever seemed truly loved in the world. This is a hopeless, cynical film, about a similarly hopeless and cynical one, but it is a fantastic and devastating film as well.