Monster's Ball

Rating:
Summary: Potent film about prejudice and desperation
Review: Monster's Ball is a potent film about hatred, racism, desperation, and a clash of cultures. Hank and Leticia are most unlikely to ever have a relationship of any kind, especially romantic. And yet...

Hank is a corrections officer in a southern prison. His emptional capacity is zero - empty - He lives a sordid life of quiet desparation and prejudice. His emotional makeup is ice-cold both for his racist, mean-spirited father and a son trying to win his father's affection, to no avail.

Leticia is a poor, underemployed African-American mother soon to be widowed when her no-good husband is properly electrocuted. Her son also struggles with his father relationship but the struggle is aborted by his father's execution and his own untimely death.

Under the the strangest of circumstances, fate forces a collision of Hank and Leticia which illuminates the deepest recesses of their mutual distrust, fear, neediness and edges of love. Desperate people do desperate things and the emotional climax of this film is gripping and frightful. Both Halle Berry and Billy Bob Thornton deliver award-worthy performances.

Not since Sling Blade have I seen so persuasive a performance.

Warning - explicit sexual scenes.