Monster (2003)

VERDICT:
7/10 Even Better Reasons Not To Frequent Hookers

This one’s all about Cherize, folks.

Monster is based on the life and crimes of one Aileen Wuornos who, after a life of turning tricks for all the wrong reasons (are there right reasons?) at the nowhere-near-ripe age of 12, fell in love with a lesbian instead of killing herself, tried to lead a good life for about a week, and then started offing her clientele thanks to a particularly unpleasant encounter that almost left her six feet under.

Cheery stuff, indeed.

So, yeah, that Aileen Wuornos sure was an…interesting gal. Yeah, that’ll work. Not too often that a woman gets thrown into the Serial Killing Hall of Fame, but when you gun down seven guys in cold blood over the course of one year, you most definitely earn yourself a top spot on the list. But even for everything that makes Aileen’s grim, unfortunate and unusual life one that warrants a movie adaptation, it’s kinda weird that the most intriguing part about it ends up being the acting.

It’s hard to say why exactly that is, but let’s just start with the good and work our way down.

Charlize Theron deserved the Oscar in part because she gives a pretty intense and crazed performance, but I’m thinking the whole physical transformation was the real deal breaker for her in ’04. See, this is Charlize Theron on a bad day, and this is Charlize Theron as Aileen on her Sunday best.

Yeesh.

Chances are you’ve already seen those photos before, but check out what Aileen actually looked like, then look at those pictures again.

Double yeesh.

Anyway, Charlize seems like a pretty legit and pretty cool gal to begin with, but she gets a lot of credit for jumping into this role the way that she did even if it does seem like she’s almost hamming it up at times. It’s kinda funny how by just constantly sucking on your gums to make sure your fake teeth don’t fall out can make your character look that much crazier, but it works and that mega-frown combined with those bulging eyes does wonders for the overall image. Not the kinda person I’d pick up off the side of the road and drive into the woods with, but hey, different strokes for different folks I suppose.

And Christina Ricci ain’t too bad either as Aileen’s surprisingly understanding lesbian lover, Selby. Only thing is that Selby actually looks like this in real life, but despite the drastic difference in terms of physical appearance, she does her thing and does it well even though she gets totally overshadowed by Charlize.

But the rest of it is just okay. The characters are kinda hard to get into, the directing is pretty standard and so is the writing generally, so it ends up being more up to the cast than anyone else to send this baby home. There aren’t a whole lot of individual scenes that stuck with me either, but it’s really not a bad movie, just kinda unspectacular in relation to the real forces driving it at the forefront.

There’s also something a bit odd about movies centered around actual serial killers who killed actual people. It’s not glorifying Aileen or her actions in any way, more just giving us a glimpse into her tortured life than anything else, but it’s gotta be weird for the families of the people who actually died ’cause of her. Had the same strange feeling during a South Park episode where Ted Bundy, Jeffery Dahmer and John Wayne Gacy went around mutilating folks like a homicidal version of The Three Stooges while trying to pick up a birthday cake for Satan. I don’t know, maybe it’s just me, and I know this isn’t the intention whatsoever, but I can’t help but find it kinda weird is all.

So even though it lacks in some areas, Monster shines more often than not thanks to Charlize and her gung-ho attitude. Thought the whole would be more memorable than its parts in the long run, but hers is a performance worth checking out and one that very much brought this up from a 6 to a 7.

Hookers, man. Nothin’ but bad news.