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Monster's Ball Customer Reviews (37 - 39 of 85 Reviews)

**** TRAGEDY< COMPASSION & HUMANITY ****
Monster's Ball is a prison drama/romance with a difference. It's about tragedy, compassion, forgiveness, humanity and the need for love but this is no traditional Sunday afternoon made for television weepie. Brilliantly acted by Billy Bob Thornton and Halle Berry, Monster's Ball is an intelligent but often bleak drama, subtly directed and utterly compelling.

The title, Monster's Ball is explained as being a condemned man's last supper before being executed. The condemned man in this case being Lawrence Musgrove (Sean 'Puff Daddy'/'P Diddy' Combs) an African-American who has been awaiting execution in a Georgia penitentiary for 11 years. Musgrove is married to a long suffering emotionally crushed waittress named Leticia (Halle Berry). Together they share an obese 13 year old son Tyrell who barely knows his father and seeks solace in junk food and candy bars.

Supervising officer on Musgrove's execution squad is one Hank Grotowski (Thornton), a widower and one of three generations of career prison officers. Hank's only child Sonny (Heath Ledger), a sensitive but unloved young man, is also reluctantly on the execution squad. Together they both live with Hank's retired father Buck, a bitter, nasty and brutal rascist physically disabled by the combination of chronic arthritis and emphysema. The wives of both Buck and Hank have committed suicide and all 3 generations of the Grotowski family are trapped in unhappy lives devoid of feeling, emotionally numbed and it is against this backdrop that enormously tragic circumstances conspire to bring Hank and Leticia together in this fragile love story.

As previously mentioned both Billy Bob Thornton and Halle Berry give stunning performances and contrary to popular opinion Berry's Academy Award was more than justified. Rather than being an act of political correctness it is actually one of the very few occasions where the Academy have actually got things right. Demonstrating a superb range of acting and range of emotions beyond most mere mortals Berry gives a touching and memorable performance as a woman crushed by an unfortunate catalogue of misfortune. Likewise, Thornton (one of American cinemas greatest talents) is captivating as an unloving bigot, bullied by his father and bully to his son, who begins a journey to back to life and emotional and spiritual salvation.

This is a very adult, unsentimental and intelligent drama that doesn't pull its punches. It's not what could be described as entertainment as the first hour of the movie particularly presents an increasingly bleak story of grief, loss and tragedy. However, as an examination of the human condition and our intrinsic need for love this is very powerful and thought provoking stuff, which against all odds ends on a positive note of hope. Uncompromisingly well written and directed, Monster's Ball also features great supporting performances (against type) by the likes of Heath Ledger and a surprisingly sombre Sean Combs. Recommended; 4 stars ****.

A Monster of a Performance by Berry
Halle Berry stars as Leticia Musgrove, a young African-American mother whose husband is on death row for an undisclosed crime. Her husband (Sean Combs) is executed by a white father named Hank and his son (Billy Bob Thornton and Heath Ledger, respectively). After the abusive mother's only son is killed in a freak accident, Hank (whose estranged son commits suicide) becomes entangled in Leticia's life, marked by crippling grief and great misfortune. They begin an affair, Leticia all the while not knowing that her new love was the one who killed the father of her dead son. Will she overcome this, or will she succumb to the familiar isolation she has faced nearly all of her life?

The performances are all marvelous. Thornton and Ledger maintain a quiet anger and sadness, Combs and Peter Boyle (as Hank's racist father) are both great in brief supporting roles, but nothing compares to Berry. Usually typecast as the beautiful girlfriend or token black character, she brings exquisite calibration to her work, a raw fear combined with pride and numbing insecurities. She also has some stunning hysterical moments in the film, when she realizes who Thornton's character is and when she finds out her son is dead at the hospital. The latter moment emblazons itself on your memory, as she bangs on the glass screaming with gutteral howls "My baby! Please don't take my baby!" before collapsing into a heap. Berry, despite some recent poor script and genre choices, proved herself in this film, winning a well-deserved Oscar as Best Actress in a Leading Role against such contenders as former winners Sissy Spacek and Judi Dench. Berry's performance ranks among the best in recent memory.

Excellent acting and good writing make this film easily one of the finest of the last few years.

Lives up to the hype
One of the most stunning things about the film is the stark contrast between the quality of the visuals and the incredibly bleak story. The prison, the dusty roads, the stuffy old house that Hank (Billy Bob Thornton) and his family live in are all beautiful, as seen through the eye of the cinematographer. I think the visual impact and symbolism that director Marc Forster was attempting in his earlier film EVERYTHING PUT TOGETHER fell flat and at times became heavy-handed and downright corny, but were strikingly present in MONSTER'S BALL.

Thornton follows up his excellent performance in THE MAN WHO WASN'T THERE with another role that appears written for him. (From what I know of Thornton, much of Hank's characteristics and background aren't too far from his own. For instance, I couldn't help laughing over his standing order of chocolate ice cream with a PLASTIC spoon, as I know he has many food phobias, among many others.) I was also thoroughly impressed by Halle Berry (as the Academy and so many others proved to be). This was the first time I'd seen her offer a full range of emotions, and she certainly wasn't afraid to delve into raw and ugly realities of life contained within the story. I must also mention the strong supporting cast, including Peter Boyle as Hank's father and Heath Ledger as Hank's son, rounding out his dysfunctional family.

The "controversial" sex scene that has been so heavily discussed was one of the saddest moments I've ever seen portrayed on film; so heavy with desperate, awful need. Yes, it was somewhat graphic, but it was the emotional content more than the nudity or actions that got to me.

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