MOVIE REVIEW

Monster  (2003)

Starring: Charlize Theron, Christina Ricci
Director: Patty Jenkins

Rating: R

Studio: Newmarket Films

Release Date: 12.24.03

Review Posted: 12.24.03

Spoilers: Minor

By Sara M. Fetters

Theron Stunning "Monster;" Movie Disappointing Mess

Aileen Wuornos was not a very nice woman. Growing up spectacularly abused the far from glamorous Floridian grew up to be a rough-edged streetwalker who turned tricks while hitchhiking across the state. Eventually, supposedly to care for both herself and a waifish lesbian lover, she took to shooting her johns, dispatching seven of them before she was caught by local police. Executed in 2002 after spending 12 years on Florida’s death row, Wuornos was a powder keg of raw visceral attitude, claiming until the end that she was the victim, not the men she murdered in cold blood.

Eccentric documentarian Nick Broomfield (“Kurt & Courtney”) has told Aileen’s story twice, both of which astound in their fascinatingly surreal verisimilitude. Now rookie writer/director Patty Jenkins and supremely beautiful actress (making her producing debut) Charlize Theron (“The Italian Job”) bring the serial killer’s tale to life with the docudrama “Monster.” Unfortunately, in doing so the duo has crafted a rather bizarrely truncated love story that is wildly out of focus, arousing sympathy and pathos where, in the end, it is oddly misplaced.

Yet, before going into what went is wrong with “Monster,” let me start with what is, not only right about the film, but darn near transcendentally perfect. And that would be Theron, whom until now has been a perfectly charming presence in a wide range of films, but until now has never even hinted at the breadth or depth of performance she is delivers here. In what is one of the most amazing physical transformations ever put on film; not since Robert DeNiro in “Raging Bull” has an actor so assuredly transmogrified their appearance to such brazen effect; Theron is startling good as Wuornos. She embodies the woman so thoroughly, from her lazy slur to her slightly jut hip protruding in resilient defiance, that from the first moment she appears on screen I could not take my eyes of her. What more, you quickly forget it is Theron underneath the makeup and crooked teeth, completely absorbed in how wholly she has inhabited this mentally unhinged psychopath.

If only the movie were as good as this performance. At its heart, “Monster” is a love story between Aileen and Selby Wall (Christina Ricci, “Anything Else”), a young lesbian just itching to break away from her misunderstanding family. That’s fine, I have no problem with watching this abused and misbegotten woman tasting a bit of tenderness in her life; it’s just that by using this ham-handed device to frame her story Jenkins unfortunately forces the audience to enter into some strange, misbegotten compassion for the murderess. In interview after interview both Theron and the director comment on the fact that Wuornos never asked for sympathy during her time behind bars, yet their film ironically insists on giving it to her, painting a picture of a woman let down by a society refusing to give her a chance.

Fine, I can buy that to a certain extent. I can even handle Jenkin’s assertion (a claim also made by Aileen in the Broomfield documentaries) that her killing spree came about almost by accident, the first one self defense against a deranged lunatic intent on raping her with a wooden handle. Of course, this is a slippery slope, and the director doesn’t so much as slide off of it as stumble just enough times to bring into question her handling of the story. The johns Wuornos offs are scum, mangy doggerel scoundrels whom deserve their bullet-ridden comeuppance. By the time Aileen does start to really screw up, towards the end of her spree she killed both a good samaritan and retired police officer, I could have cared less, “Monster” didactically beating me over the head with how awful life has been for the poor bereft killer.

Ricci is just fine as the emotionally stunted Wall, yet she’s not so good as to really write much about it, either. Veteran 70’s icons Bruce Dern and Scott Wilson pop up, but other than look indie-film cool they really don’t have much to do. No, “Monster” is Theron’s movie from beginning to end, the actress owning every frame with a steely wide-eyed determination that’s stunning. In fact, the former South African model is so good she only helps point out everything that’s wrong about the film. From a kitsch-y first kiss in a roller rink set to a Journey song to a weird hand-job between Wuornos and a stuttering john (Pruitt Taylor Vince, “Identity,” whom really must stop taking these kinds of roles), “Monster” never finds a vibe to call its own, ultimately solely relying upon the actress to keep the audience’s interest from waning.

That Theron succeeds is a testament to just how wonderful she is. After watching the movie, not only is an Oscar-nomination assured for the lovely lady but I’d also go so far as to hedge my bets and say she’s going to win. Great, good for her, Theron’s performance here easily one for the ages. Too bad the movie it’s given in doesn’t deserve it, “Monster” a monstrously disappointing mess.

Rating: êê  (out of 4)

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