Rating: 
Summary: Monster's Ball: Some People Change--Some Don't
Review: One of the best pictures of 2001 is MONSTER'S BALL. It is no surprise that Halle Berry won an Oscar for her role as Leticia, an African-American wife who has to cope with the loss of her son just as she has to learn to cope with the problems involved in having a white lover, played by Billy Bob Thornton. This film is noteworthy for more than just the extraordinary acting of its cast, but for its subtext that suggests that as society changes, some people manage to change with it and stay afloat, while others cannot or will not, and pay a fearsome price.
Director Marc Forster sets the stage in a Southern prison with the upcoming execution of a convict played by Sean Combs, who in his brief role manages to invest his character with a myriad of conflicting emotions, most of which revolve around his wife, an uncaring Leticia, and an overweight son who cares enough for both himself and his mother. She no longer has any feeling for her husband and blames his long criminal career as the reason. All she cares about is giving her son the opportunity to say goodbye to his father. The scenes between the condemned and the prison guards responsible for making sure the execution goes off without a hitch are played with an undercurrent of inevitability. Each recognizes that they all have a role to play in a script that was written when the governor turned down Combs' last minute stay of execution. Heath Ledger plays Hank's son who dares to alter the script slightly by vomiting in horror at his own role. It was painful for the audience to see how callously Hank beats his son, thus identifying him as surely the villain. But in this movie, not all monsters wear horns or are incapable of change. Heath Ledger cannot change nor can he reconcile his feelings of rage at the system with rage at a father who so clearly supports a life-denying system. In despondency, he shoots himself. Hank, who admits that he once hated his son, now begins to change. At home, his father, well-played by Peter Boyle, represents the dying view of the South as the last bastion of resistance against civil rights and uppity nigras. His venom, upon seeing that his son is involved with a black woman, is brutally cutting, more so because his remarks do not represent a thoughtful insult but merely the tip of a prejudiced iceberg whose icy base extends all the way to Reconstruction. He,like his son, cannot change, and his punishment is to be exiled to a nursing home. Leticia is first seen as a mean woman whose rage at a criminal husband extends to an obese son who eats more the more she hits him for being obese. When her son is killed in a hit and run, her grief is real, even if she expresses it first by laughing, then crying, then laughing again. She and Hank connect, with each one suffering greatly, but in Hank's case, his pain is internalized. It is only by the mildest change of voice tone does he suggest that his calm face hides a heart that is at least as devastated as Leticia's. They begin an affair that starts out as pure sex. It is only after several graphic couplings that expose Halle Berry's nude body, does she begin to see that pain comes and goes, but it is trust that must endure. Leticia must endure the overt racism of Hank's father and the unexpected discovery of Hank's participation in her husband's execution before she realizes that the many monsters that lurk in everyone's soul are put there by that person, and that with love, with courage, and with effort, they can be removed too.
Rating: 
Summary: Highly Disappointed
Review: I thought the movie was going to be something fantastic since Halle had won an award for it. But it was a big disappointment and the sex scene that I had heard so much about was not great. Everyone in the movie in my opinion did poor acting. And the ending was ......... there are not enough words to describe what a disappointment this movie was!
Rating: 
Summary: OSCAR MATERIAL -- I THINK NOT....
Review: Although the story was griping at times -- Halle Barry's performace was not worthy of an Oscar. The film would have been just as interesting without all the "skin". Way, way too much....
Rating: 
Summary: ABSOLUTELY INTRINGING!!
Review: The nature of this movie was very disturbing, but, the people in this movie comes alive in their respective roles - principally, Halle Berry. She definitely played the role of a lifetime. I'm sure she pulled from her reserve of emotional disappointments over her lifetime to come up with the range of emotions she had to use for all of the scenes in this film. I also enjoyed Billy Bob Thornton's role as he came to realize who he was, and to change that, and become someone else - someone of light, and not dark.I highly recommend this DVD for the intelligent movie watcher.
Rating:
Summary: A somewhat morbid film!
Review: Monster's Ball is a wonderful but somewhat morbid film. From the beginning I couldn't help saying, how could these peoples lives get any worse. Of course, all their lives do get worse as it goes along. A beautifully done tragedy that ends with a lot of hope for two people who's lives were basically wrenched apart at the core. A little heavy on the gratuitous sex scenes, especially with "Vera" making house calls, but it sells. Billy Bob Thornton and Halle Berry both did a wonderful job on this movie and both deserved all the accolades they've received for it.
Rating:
Summary: This is the dance of real life
Review: There are many things to like in this movie:
The masterful direction.
The fine performances - Halle Berry and Billy Bob Thornton hit all the right notes as the leading couple. Furthermore, we meet Heath Ledger in a part completely different from the pretty-boy-roles of his past, while Peter Boyle (whose I've always been a fan) depicts successfully Thornton's racist father.
The raw, realistic and intense atmosphere of the film is also a big plus - The love scene, for which many things have been written, is a perfect example of that atmosphere. What could have probably been better:
The story, describing how the tragic occurrences in the lives of two people will finally bring them together, didn't always convince me. For example, how did Thornton's character so abruptly change from a black men's hater to someone capable of loving so passionately a black woman? There are a couple of things, which I will not reveal, that attempt to explain this reversal, but still... In any case, for me, the real peak of the movie comes at the closing scene. If you pay close attention to the look in the eyes of Halle Berry's character, everything will make perfect sense for you.
Rating:
Summary: Maybe I'm glad to have moved away from those GA Rednecks
Review: From my perspective as a white man who lived in Atlanta and, yes, Marietta Georgia for 14 years, had been in interracial relationships there and knew quite a few Georgia rednecks (I could tell a lot of stories), I thought this movie rang true. I don't think the acting was flawless, just very good, especially when you consider the low budget and short shooting schedule. It was a very moving film, certainly one of the very best I've seen this year. The Acadamy Awards were the icing on the cake--I don't know that I've ever seen such an emotional Oscar night.
Rating:
Summary: Surprisingly wonderful film but not necessarily comfortable
Review: I watched this movie rather reluctantly. I expected it to be totally depressing and suprisingly it was not. After seeing it, I couldn't get it out of my mind and keep mulling over so many of the subtle details. For me, the beauty of this film was how stark and yet how subtle it seemed to be. All the characters, even the minor ones, seemed so layered without being heavy handed. The two main characters, Hank and Letitia, played by Billy Bob Thornton and Halle Berry, are not necessarily likeable characters. They are living lives of quiet desperation and somehow their lives come together through a series of circumstances. Somehow Hank finds some joy and hope that he probably never remotely imagined existed and Letitia finds unexpected shelter from the relentless blows life has showered on her. Together they are nicer people and more whole than apart. I found personal beauty in so many tiny elements and how subtly Hank's racist attitude starts to change. When Hank starts approaching the black neighbor whose kids he drove off his property with a shotgun, the neighbor doesn't rebuff him as he obviously could have which would have reinforced Hank's racist beliefs. Halle Berry is obviously a gorgeous woman but I didn't feel her beauty detracted from this role. It seemed like she was a woman who should have had a much better life (i.e., her physical beauty opening doors and opportunities) but like many people, bad choices and unfortunate circumstances over the years have taken their toll. I highly recommend this film but warn that it is not necessarily a comfortable movie to watch. At the end, I chose not to watch the deleted scenes (on the DVD) because I didn't want to change the impressions I had after my initial watching.
Rating:
Summary: Outstanding
Review: Monster's Ball is a great film for fans of quality film-making.
The lead actors are extremely believable in this dark drama about a emerging romance between the an widow of an executed prisoner and his chief executioner. Set in the rural and still segregated South, Halle Berry delivers a stunning performance as beautiful but fragile single mom made a widow when her husband dies in the electric chair. Billy Bob Thorton is a straight-laced, bigot prison guard that seems to have no problems in executing the condemned man. His son cannot cope with the surreal scene and commits suicide when he realizes he cannot meet the expectations of his father. The pace is agonizingly slow like the final hours of the condemned. The guard and widow are literally thrown together when a hit and run driver kills her young son. Slowly the hard man softens. The sex is direct yet sensual. The filmmakers use artful camera angles and editing to create a mood that fits the stark storyline. Not a film for everyone, this film will be enjoyed for those who want more than fast-paced action. I watched it four times within 3 days of buying the DVD and I am sure I will watch it again. Halle definitely deserved the accolades she received for this film.
Rating: 
Summary: Flawed, But Still Worth A Look
Review: MONSTER'S BALL looks to be a grand statement about racial intolerance--it wants to be an eloquent moral epic tucked inside an intimate love story. It's hardly a masterpiece, but it's quietly thoughtful and often very good. Its lowest-key moments are its most successful; when it tries to be big, it falls short. As a story about racism, it's almost innocently old-fashioned. The plot is basically predictable in its broadest ways, although the ending is satisfyingly "uneventful" and not a cop out--the very last scene is surprisingly effective. The director, Marc Foster, succeeds in mastering a languorous, lazy, eerie tone that feels exactly right for the movie. Halle Berry plays her character, a depressed black waitress named Leticia, with a lot of guts; it's a great ham part that calls for grievous weeping, hysteria, smoldering broodiness, cruelty, sexuality, fear. Her best scenes are stunning; she shows pure craftsmanship and an almost Brando-like fervor. None of the other characters in the film are really three-dimensional, but Berry animates Leticia with some good nuance (her best moment comes when, drunk and grief-stricken, she weeps and laughs for a dead loved one; she plays the scene with an insane giddiness that makes it touching and funny). The controversial sex scene is masterfully directed and edited--it may be, technically, the best scene in the entire picture. The rest of the film is rather unobtrusive and not shocking in the least. As for Billy Bob Thornton's character, a racist, we know from the moment he enters the picture that he's supposed to be nasty, and that he's going to turn around and that's what the film is going to be about. The big things in MONSTER'S BALL may not have the scope that they hoped for, though it manages to get most of the small details right. When it does, it's lovely.
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