MONSTER (2003)
Newmarket Films

By Désirée I. Guzzetta

Monster takes the real-life story of Aileen Wuornos, a woman often incorrectly called "America's first female serial killer," fictionalizes it somewhat (as is often the case with "Based on a true story"-type films), and turns it into more of a warped love story than a character study of why this particular woman killed seven men. But that's okay because other films based on true stories have done worse to their subject matter, and this film is pretty decent, given that it's also driven by the spectacular acting of Charlize Theron as Wuornos in what is the absolutely must-see performance of the year.

Like I said, Monster is cast as a love story, but that leads to one of its more interesting aspects: Watching Lee, as Wuornos is called here, go from tragic victim to someone who seems to blossom as she finds true love when she meets Christina Ricci's Selby Wall (not the name of Wuornos' real-life lover, who apparently has long since disassociated herself from this chapter of her life).

After struggling with suicidal thoughts, Lee wanders into a bar where she is approached by the shy lesbian Selby, whose deeply homophobic father has sent her to live with a Christian family until she rejects her sinful ways. Lee, who insists she is heterosexual and who turns out to be much more vulnerable than she acts, soon falls in love with the conflicted Selby, who seems as drawn to Lee's inner self as she is to Lee's seedy lifestyle, which is completely opposite to Selby's shiny suburban upbringing. In fact, Selby is so enamored of Lee's sordid exploits that she pretends she is the one who went through them when she is hanging out with a few other young lesbians in one of the film's creepier sequences.

Lee decides to go straight so that she can take of Selby and so that they both can have a "normal" life. Naturally, civilized society has no use for hookers who try to reform themselves, and Lee is soon back to hooking in order to keep herself and Selby from homelessness. One night, unfortunately, she picks up a john (Lee Tergesen, always good in whatever role he takes) who brutally rapes her and is about to kill her before she is able to get his gun and kill him first.

Naturally, also, true love does not overcome all, and Lee begins killing her other johns for their money and cars, although there are moments when she seems to agonize over the new immorality in which she's become mired. Eventually, Selby learns Lee has been murdering men, and she betrays Lee to the police in order to keep herself from going to jail since the police were close to capturing Lee anyway.

If not for Theron's bravura performance, I'd probably have relegated Monster to the "wait for cable" pile. After all, Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer set the benchmark for character studies of serial killers as far as I'm concerned, and Monster comes up mostly empty in terms of illuminating exactly what drove Wuornos to kill. Plus, the decision to tell Wuornos' tale as if it were a love story gone awry threw me off.

Despite these misgivings, I recommend the film. Theron, who let herself get hit with the ugly stick several times in order to look more like Wuornos, is a revelation, turning in an Oscar-worthy performance and imbuing Lee with a tragic aura that makes her quite sympathetic, oddly enough. On the other hand, the normally compelling Ricci isn't given much to do here - her character never came to life as a three-dimensional human being for me and I never much cared what her fate would be, her real-life counterpart notwithstanding.

The bottom line: Monster is definitely for fans of great displays of thespianship; thanks to Theron, the film is elevated above the level of exploitation flick into something worth getting off the couch for and paying money to see.

Official Monster Site

Newmarket Films
Directed & Written by: Patty Jenkins
Starring: Charlize Theron (Aileen Wuornos), Christina Ricci (Selby Wall), Bruce Dern (Thomas), Lee Tergesen (Vincent Corey)
Running Time: 1 hour, 49 minutes
Rated: R

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