Monster

Rating:
Summary: Charlze Theron gives a perfect performance
Review: I followed the trail of Aileen Wurnos as well as watching the documentary made while she was in prison. I don't remember ever seeing any actor so perfectly capture a character. The film is very well managed to show the audience the life that created the monster without excusing the horrific murders.

Rating:
Summary: One of the best dramatic performances in history
Review: Her performance alone is worth not five stars, but 5 hundred million of 'em. I used to view Charlize as nothing more than a sub-par actress, riding on the way of her babealicious good looks. Seeing Monster completely changed the way I (and I'm sure many others) view Charlize. Never had I had as much ,awe,shock, and admiration for a performer as I do now. This is, hands down, the performance of the past three decades, and one of the best performances of the century. I'm not throwing words around, and I'm not so easily impressed, but this performance is just unbelievable. It's a transformation in every way, physically,mentally,emotionally, for Charlize. After the movie, I walked out shaking because her performance was just so raw, and real, and powerful, and gut-wrenching.This is the stuff legends are made of.I heard people complaining about the script and some aspects of the movie itself. I thought the script itself was very on point, without being over the top. But my point is, people who complain about stuff like the script or whatever need to keep their mouths shut, because this film is not about the script, or the cinematography, it is about the raw, vivid. unshakeable force that is Theron's performance. Her portrayl of Aileen Wuornous is frightening, in the sense, that when watching this film, you really feel that you are watching aileen, and not Charlize Theron with thirty extra pounds.

The supporting role from Christina Ricci, as Selby, Aileen's lover was pitch perfect.She played off her role impeccably as a whiny, selfish, girl who wanted not so much of Aileen, as she did to just get away from her life.

I hope that everyone gets a chance to see this movie.Yes, its got heavy content,but even if you usually tend to go for milder cinema, please, in the name of film, you must see this movie to witness Theron's brilliant performance.For once in a great blue moon, the hype is actually true. But no matter how much more I babble, there are just simply no words to describe how incredible her performance is. She has forever changed the way that I view actors, and how I judge them, most importantly. Raw and real, vivid and alive, trashy and profane,evil, and monstrous,innocently hopeful,and forever damaged is Charlize Theron in Monster. In 50 years,just watch and see, people will stil be talking about Charlize Theron's portrayl of a monster, who was truly just a girl whom life broke and threw, and walked over time and time again.

Rating:
Summary: Incredible performances, fantastic film
Review: This film is based on nine months in the life of Aileen Wuornos, one of America's first female serial killers. She became a prostitute at the age of thirteen and ran away from home to Florida. After a particularly bad day, she walks into a bar, not knowing that it's a gay bar (and not caring) and meets Selby Walker, a closeted lesbian who was unwillingly sent to Florida by her father. They strike up a friendship that blossoms into love. Determined to give Selby everything she wants, Aileen continues hooking. But one night, events take a terrible turn and she kills a john who rapes her, starting a downward slide as she tries to make a new life for her and Selby.

Charlize Theron is incredible as Aileen. It's not just the incredible make-up and prosthetics; she seems to lose herself in the character of Aileen, becoming her. It's as if she the words were coming straight from her instead of from a script. Theron plays her with such reality that you begin to empathize with Aileen, to understand the driving force behind the
killings. Christina Ricci is very good as Selby, naive and closeted and with just the right mindset of someone who is discovering herself.

It's a harsh, violent film, but contains one of the best performances -- that is deserving of many accolades and awards -- by Charlize Theron. An
incredible film.

Rating:
Summary: Astounding, all the hype is true
Review: I was concerned that this film would not live up to all its hype. I had nothing to be concerned about, it exceeded my already high expectations, by quite a bit. Theron is not that great in first couple of scenes and you're getting used to the make-up, but about 20-30 minutes into it, it's Wuornos you're watching. The story grabs your attention immediately and keeps it through the end. While I'm not sure it's the performance of the century as many have stated, it's easily the best in the last 5 years or so, and certainly for this year. Amazing. I thought Ricci was a little miscast and her character and performance I thought added little to the film when in fact she is an important character. I just thought Ricci was sleepwalking through it, and she looked 18 years old or so, which was way off from real life. Wuornos' real life Selby, a woman named Tyria, was in her late 20's and far from some misguided confused waif who just left home. Anyway, I thought Ricci was all wrong and added some element to the film that was not true to the real story.

Obviously, this film is not for everyone. Prostitution, serial murdering, and lesbians are not everyon'e idea of what makes a good movie. This is a very tough movie to watch, and there is no happy ending. Even worse for some, no real resolution for how one should feel about Wuornos is provided. I thought the script and direction were excellent and let you draw your own conclusions. Wuornos at least starts off pitiful and likeable. When you are homeless and make your living hooking on major freeways, you are at the end of the line. The film does not whitewash her meager and hideous existence at the start of the film, or her desperate love for Ricci, the only real love she has ever had. The film, however, ends with Wuornos, in fact, being a heartless and merciless killer, no doubt about it. What may frustrate some viewers but what I think made it so good is that, Wuornos' case cannot be placed into that of black and white. Neither is she 100% victim nor 100% victimizer. Some of her actions are explanable, some are not. It's not an easy film to watch, not at all, but I think it handled the complexity of the Wuornos case quite well. Also, I live within minutes of the Last Resort and most of where Wuornos worked, lived, and killed. The shots are authentic and I think add to the movie.

This is easily the performance of the year. If you can handle disturbing subject matter with some fairly graphic violence and a lesbian sex scene, then see the movie.

Rating:
Summary: Charlize Theron gets the Oscar in a walk
Review: I've read a lot of astonishing praise for this performance - stuff along the lines of "the best female performance in 50 years." I'm not quite ready to say "50 years," but if you limit yourself to films of 2003, I'd say no one comes close to Charlize Theron's performance as true-life serial killer & hooker Ailine Wuornos.

It takes about half and hour for Theron to find her groove. At first, she is all ticks and shoulder twitches to emphasize Wuornos' awkwardness and inability to deal with other people. Then she suddenly disappears into her character, and the audience stops thinking about how much weight the actress has gained, or how much make-up she must be wearing, and really starts believing the story.

The director has also done an outstanding job; there is something disturbing and desolate about the way she films the Florida landscape the Wuornos stalked. You see Florida the way Aline Wuornos did: hopeless, hellish, irredeemable.

I thought Christina Ricci was just fine as Wuornos' lover, Selby, but the best secondary performance in the film is a small one by the almost-unrecognizable Bruce Dern as Wuornos' one real friend. An excellent job all-round and a sure thing for Theron at Oscar time.

Rating:
Summary: Good movie, great performance.
Review: Charlize Theron proves herself to be a first rate talent in "Monster." This is not a gimmick designed to get her attention, or an overrated performance by an average talent. She reveals herself in this role to have acting skills on par with the very best. She may well win the Oscar for her fully realized portrayal of Aileen Wuornos, and if she doesn't win this year, it will just prove the theory that not all Oscar voters bother to watch all the movies before voting.

Anyone familiar with Wuornos from Nick Broomfield's excellent documentary "The Selling of a Serial Killer" will be blown away by Theron's impersonation, because she fully embodies the character and gives her a humanity and sympathy that will leave viewers moved and conflicted. Like 'Boys Don't Cry' the movie does a respectable job depicting the ugly side of working class America, and just how difficult it is to move into another way of life. Though Wuornos is certainly responsible for her actions, it is hard to witness her life and not see that she was also victimizied by a system that doesn't allow for second chances.

Despite the dark subject matter, this movie is anything but depressing. The movie is a two actor piece. Like "Training Day" a few years ago, when Ethan Hawke appeared out of nowhere among the Oscar nominees, don't be surprised if Christina Ricci is a surprise nominee for Best Supporting Actress because she is in almost all of Theron's powerful scenes.

Broomfield's documentary depicts one aspect of Aileen's life not found in the film: Wuornos's adoption by a mercenary born again Christian couple who exploit her notoriety for money. I'm not sure why the film ignores this, since it is a fascinating part of the story. "Monster" is a good, if incomplete, depiction of a sad story. I highly recommend a viewing of the documentary to complete the portrait.

Rating:
Summary: Amazing
Review: The first couple of lines of this movie set the tone perfectly for what is to come. Aileen Wuornos is sitting under a freeway overpass, gun in hand, about to commit suicide. The only thing stopping he is the five dollars in her pocket. Why would that stop her? Well, if you aren't already familiar with the story, Aileen is a hooker. Given what she did to get that money, dying without spending it would mean she essentially prostituted herself for free.

Without seeing where she started, the story that follows that scene would not grip the viewer the way it does. In spending her last five dollars Aileen (the amazing Charlize Theron) finds a reason to live. She meets Selby (Christina Ricci), a woman that would become her friend/lover, and eventually the reason she kills. It's impossible not to feel empathy as Aileen descends into a repeating pattern of murder.

First, she kills in self-defense. This first murder brings about a combination of factors that lead to the murders of others:

1) That experience causes her to never again want to sell her body.

2) Given that she can no longer make money by prostituting herself, and she doesn't have the skills to do anything else, Aileen must find a way to make money to support her lover.

3) Her only experiences with other people have been with the worst kind of people. So, human life does not mean as much to her, as it does to most. Thus, she doesn't feel very much guilt for killing her Johns to support the one decent person in her life.

4) Fearing that no one would believe a hooker, she realizes that one murder will at the very least cause her to spend a long time in prison, and therefore committing more murders will not get her in significantly more trouble (A very real problem with the criminal system).

Monster is true story of how one woman can be brought to murder. However, Aileen Wuornos was not an unfeeling monster. She was simply a victim of circumstan

Rating:
Summary: horrifying, based on a true story
Review: This is the true story of Aileen, a Florida woman who has been chasing dreams of love, beauty and acceptance since she was a child with the mistaken belief that hooking would help her get what she wants. Aileen believes someone will discover her, see past everything and help her, and goes into each interaction sure that this time will be different. When this story starts, Aileen has finally realized it won't.

At this time she eneters a local ... bar -- even though she herself is not ... -- and meets Selby. Selby is lonely, and treats Aileen with kindness, inviting her home to have a place for the night. They start a friendship and then a romance.

Selby is running from her own ghosts, including a father who won't treat her as an adult. With her arm in a cast, Selby can't get a job, so she is dependent on Aileen's hooking to support them. But now that Aileen has love, she doesn't need hooking anymore.

Unfortunately, neither of them is qualified for any real work. And therein everything takes a turn for the worse ....

This movie has some graphic gory scenes, and is gut-wrenching to watch, especially for women. But it is well-done, and the loneliness and hope -- as well as how Aileen's temper and past wrecks everything she tries to do --- is painted vividly. You don't know if you are rooting for anyone, but Aileen is so complicated with both good and bad intentions that you are not sure what you feel for her until the very end.

This is one of the few movies actually worth your money and time.

Rating:
Summary: Why won't anyone be nice to Aileen Wurnos??
Review: I sometimes wonder why more people can't be nice. I wonder why the sins of the father have to plague the lives of his children. Why people rape, abuse, hurt, and maim. In a perfect world everyone would be happy. In a perfect world no one would ever want. In a perfect world a women like Aileen Wurnos would not have been sentenced to die on death row, and in a real world I wouldn't have to write about a movie like MONSTER. It's a movie that drips with exceptional performances, and yet leaves your soul so cold to the core.

MONSTER is the tragic true story of a woman who longed for a friend, and nobody came to her aid. It stars Charlize Theron (The Devil's Advocate) as Aileen Wurnos, one of the first women to ever die on death row. Of course the film doesn't begin that way, when we first meet her she's sitting in the rain with a gun contemplating ending it all. You see she's has no future. She has nothing but a past that's not worth repeating, and all she has in the world is in a storage locker. What little money she has, is gained by being a prostitute. But one day in a little bar in Daytona Beach, Florida she meets and falls for a woman that finally makes her happy.

The woman is named Selby (Christina Ricci, The Opposite of Sex), and she's a young lesbian just trying to figure out the world for herself. At first this relationship puts Aileen on cloud nine. She's willing to do anything to provide for the first person that ever loved her.

But one night when Aileen kills a john who gets a little to rough, a series of events take our characters on a one way trip with destiny. Leaving the landscape of these two women's lives are forever changed. If only someone had just been nice to Aileen.

MONSTER is not a happy film. It's one of those movies that leaves you dead at the end. You lose faith in humanity; you lose faith in yourself. I like these kinds of movies, cause they convict me. Here I am a young guy who sometimes gets ticked off at a driver in front of me on the road. For one split moment I have murderous anger when that guy cuts me off. What if I was in Aileen's situation? Would I do the same thing? I would hope not, but hey you never know.

If there is one performance that will tear you up inside this year, it's Theron's. For the entire movie you can hardly believe that this is, in real life, a beautiful women. Theron throws all the glamour out the window, gaining weight and frumping herself up to the point of being ugly. This is a complete 360 and she's so engrossing. She carries the film to heights. A lesser actress might turn in a wonderful performance, but Theron was Aileen. This is some brilliant acting.

I also give Kudos to Bruce Dern . His character has the distinction of being the only person who shows any real compassion for Aileen. While a small role it sticks out because it's the only real bit of bright light in an otherwise dark and gloomy picture.

The screenplay by Patty Jenkins (Who also directed) does a great job of giving Aileen and those around her life. What Aileen did was reprehensible. What she did was evil, and she must pay for that. But it allows for sympathy. Not all evil is dark and black, and not all people who murder are 100% culpable. But yet you reap what you sow no matter what you're past.

MONSTER is a well-made, brilliantly acted film that's not for the weak of heart. It's engaging, engrossing, and realistic. I think I want to rush out and get the silliest comedy I can find right now, because I need something to offset the dark tone of this film. While it get a fine recommendation, I just hope that the next time you feel like treating someone like crap, you'll remember just how tragic the life of Aileen Wurnos turned tragic because nobody reached out.

Rating:
Summary: Charlize Theron Is A Marvel...
Review: ...but the movie itself could have used a bit of tweaking. Christina Ricci's Selby is rather sketchy and comes across as far too naive for own good, but it's to Ricci's credit and formidable skills that she makes this lonely, desperate young woman someone you can sympathize with, you truly feel that she just wants to be loved and understood. In a great performance that teeters between tragic and comedic, Theron as Aileen is just plain remarkable. After the first few minutes you actually forget that you're watching one of the most beautiful women in the world ACTING. The script leaves a lot to be desired, but on the strength of the two leading actresses, "Monster" is worth a look. Favorite Scene: Aileen and Selby's first kiss in the roller-rink as the camera pans in for an extreme close-up with Neil Schon's wailing guitar surging in the background as "Don't Stop Believin'" plays over the P.A. system. You'll never listen to this song the same way again.