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Monster Customer Reviews (1 - 3 of 100 Reviews)

Painful
If I could only use one word to describe the feeling I had when watching 'Monster', that would be it. Painful. As I watched the account of this woman's life I was in constant agony for I felt for her and her situation, her horrific lot in life. Aileen Wuornos (Charlize Theron) is not the monster here. The monster is the life she led, the life forced upon her, the life that ate at her everyday. Aileen, prostitute since thirteen, never knew anything more than what she had, and as the film opens we see that she is about to take her own life because of this, that was until she meets Selby Wall (Christina Ricci). Selby (real name was Tyria Moore) is a closet lesbian who wants to come out against the will of her overbearing parents. She meets Aileen in a gay bar, a place apparently Aileen was unaware was a gay bar, but after they meet they lose something they've felt their whole life...they no longer feel lonely, alone.

In order to keep Selby by her side Aileen turns back to prostitution but after being abused horrifically by a 'John' Aileen makes a change. That's when the murders begin, and even though some are not justified and some are heartbreaking (especially when she murders and innocent man out of pure fear and hopelessness) you never feel as though she deserves what she gets. She didn't deserve the hand she was dealt and its heart wrenching to see her have to go through everything she went through. Yes, it's true that not all women who are raped by their father figure turn out to be murderers, but I don't feel that's the reason she killed. There is so much we don't know about the woman that was Aileen Wuornos, but from Charlize's brilliant performance we gather that she was afraid, she was alone, she was confused and she was emotionally dieing if not already dead. She had been abused in everyway possible and thrown out without a chance, without a care in the world, even by the ones she loved the most (most notably Selby).

This is a truly heartbreaking and, yes, painful film to watch but it's one that we all do well to experience to know the tragedy we ourselves are at times too guarded (and judgmental) against.

And the monster is who, exactly?
The centerpiece of this film is Charlize Theron's stunning portrayal of Aileen Wuornos -- a Florida prostitute who murdered 7 murders in 1990 - thus becoming America's first female serial killer. Theron's transformation from Hollywood beauty to forty-something burned-out highway hooker occurs inside and out. While makeup can depict weather-battered skin, and a few extra pounds can take the bloom off the rose, Theron becomes alternatingly swaggering and pitiable, melting into the tottering psyche of Aileen. Her perpetually down-turned smile is both a mark of inner pride and an expression of the bravado that she needs to survive emotionally.

As depicted in the movie, from a tender age Aileen craved for acceptance and love. The men in her life, from her abusive father to her schoolmates, only abuse her. The closest she comes to love is in letting men use her body in every degrading way imaginable. She prowls the highways, selling sexual favors for pitifully small amounts of cash. But after years of this degrading work, one trick turns violent and Aileen guns down her assailant. This seems to empower her in a way she has never experienced, and she continues to kill for money, partly to avoid hustling, partly to support her young paramour, and partly for revenge. It's not hard to see where this not-too-bright, friendless, alcoholic and unconnected person will end up.

As seen in the DVD featurette, writer/director Patty Jenkins connects strongly with Aileen. Jenkins sees Aileen as a victim whose world has cut off every avenue of escape. Jenkins also sees in Aileen the desperate need of every human being to be loved. When Aileen meets Shelby (Christina Ricci) it seems that for the first time she has a chance to hope and dream of something better than hustling truckers and married men. Whether the film accurately portrays the true Aileen Wuornos is something I cannot answer. In fact, Jenkins's attempt to tell the "larger truth" about Aileen practically screams "agenda-driven distortion!" A larger truth than Jenkins's may be that when you make a film about people (including the men Aileen murdered) it is important to depict them fairly and accurately. Whether Jenkins did that, or just chose to take the word of a likely psychotic, drug-addicted, emotionally damaged woman is the big question. By choosing to ignore Aileen's drug problem (replacing it with excessive alcohol consumption) or her ever-shifting testimony about the murders provides an insight into Jenkins's possible agenda.

Nevertheless, as a story of how a victimized human being whose last shred of self-respect comes exploding from the barrel of a gun, the movie is affecting and upsetting. As an unvarnished look at the humiliations and trials of the disposable people that some use for their gratification, it is troubling and moving. Viewers must ponder the question of the identity of the "monster" of the title. Is it Aileen, washed-up loser, prostitute and deranged serial killer? Or the men and communities that trampled her human dignity? And if the answer is "both," then what do we do with monsters we willingly create?

Theron's performance noteworthy, all else unremarkable.
Theron's performance merited the Oscar she received. By looking at Theron you couldn't imagine she could grunge up and portray a white trash, uneducated, disturbed so well.

The rest of the performances weren't substantial and the plot itself is what you would expect.

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