Rating: 
Summary: To see a human being, you have to be a human being
Review: MONSTER'S BALL is the "party" the other corrections officers throw following a new correction officer's first execution. Sonny Grotowski (Heath Ledger), a corrections officer in the Georgia penal system is assigned to the death house the night Sean "Puffy" Combs is executed. The audience will witness Combs' death, and his execution is graphic, but having witnessed it maybe we can better appreciate why the Grotowski family implodes afterward.Death row executions have been depicted before in "The Green Mile", "The Chamber", and "Dead Man Walking." Elements of all three of these films can be found in this film--transcendance (Green Mile); breakdown of body functions (Chamber); and the pathos of the victim (Dead Man). Yet, Monster's Ball is different. The storyline focuses on those who carry out the executions--the executioner. For the most part, the wonderful cast assembled for this film make you believe. Sean Combs may be a bit too wise and insightful for his ending but we have no idea how long he has been on death row, and perhaps like Carla Faye Tucker, he has become a better person from having faced the prospect of his own extinction. If you're opposed to the death penalty you may find yourself sickened by some of the scenes. Still, this film does not appear to be about "ending the death penalty" as much as it is about the effects of execution on those who must carry it out. Halle Berry's character Leticia Musgrove reminded me of Susan Sarandon's character (a waitress) in "White Palace." She is a very fine actress, and I hope she is nominated for and wins the Academy Award for best actress. Billy Bob Thorton's character Hank Grotowski is more assertive and luckier than his character in "The Man Who Wasn't There." The storyline of this movie could have gone in any direction, but those who believe in the redeeming power of love and salvation through grace will not be disappointed.
Rating: 
Summary: Emotionally Wrenching and Captivating
Review: This the most emotionally stirring film I've ever seen. It is less about racism, and more about the desperate lives of the well drawn characters. There hasn't been a better acted movie released in years. The performances are keenly done. Monster's Ball can be difficult to watch at times. Your heart will break, you will laugh, cry, scream, and walk out of the theater a different person. Go out of your way to see this movie. It is one of the best.
Rating: 
Summary: ....the cutting room......
Review: So, the International release contains an additional minute between Halle Berry and Billy Bob Thornton! Quaint! The plot is positively Grecian in concept, but besides all of that, it's somewhat a predictable tale of love across the color line with a few complications thrown in for good measure. Stereotypes? Sure, we'll always have those, but the performances are of note, especially Halle Berry - so similar to Dorothy Dandridge, another Hollywood casualty. The premise has been around for some time, fortunately for us, Ms. Berry and Mr. Thornton accepted, real actors, real performances. BUT, I'm not sure how well this movie will play with 'ordinary folk' - sure to be just great with the "in crowd". [This movie especially resonates in interracial households and neighborhoods]
Rating: 
Summary: A sad drama that dipics stereotypical roles lacking essence!
Review: Without revealing to much of the movie in detail, you have a storyline that starts out underdeveloped with a racially intolerant father (Peter Boyle) and son (Billy Bob Thornton), the story leads into an execution of Lawerence Musgrove (Sean PDitty Combs) without rhyme or reason! that includes Leticia Musgrove (Halle(Holle)Berry) and their 11 year old son Tyrell! It depics Leticia Musgrove, Halle(Holle)Barry as helpless, hapless, unemotional, whorish, no resources, no family or friends, and as a non bill paying child abuser. But Hank Grotowski (Billy Bob Thornton) steps into her life as a evoling racist. Who starts to understand the love for his son (Heath Ledger) (whom commits sucide behind the execution of Lawernce Musgrove, go figure?) through the tragic events of Leticia Musgrove! This movie leaves a lot to desire and wonder about in the characteristic theme and behavoir., You have a known racist man that has knowledge that he is one of the executioners of a woman's husband (but still a sexual opportunist) and you have a women that's going through a horrific life experience without explaining if there is any family or friend to help out, but displaying aminal sexual behavior in a time of serious mourning
! The movie does not give a lot of reasons or answers which makes it very suspect in the eye of the viewers, who should know that you would exhaust all resourses before turning to a stranger! But I guess it's viewer's discretion!!!!!!
Rating:
Summary: A 'Ball' of a time!
Review: - The Setting - In a quiet small town somewhere in Georgia: Scene 1: Introductions of the leading male and the leading female, both extremely different in every way save for a past connection that links their lives. Scene 2: an unlikely love affair develops between the two after a chance meeting. - The Dancers -: He is Billy Bob Thornton, as corrections officer Hank Grotowski. He lives with his racially intolerant father Buck (Peter Boyle), and his weak-in-character son Sonny (Heath Ledger), both of whom are also corrections officers - the family profession. Despite their close proximity with him, he is far apart from them in spirit. He despises his father for his backward racist mindsets and his son for not having the spine to do the family job, but he gets ugly only with the latter. She is Halle Berry, as Leticia Musgrove, a recent widow after her convict husband (Sean "Puffy" Combs) is executed. In his departure, she is left to care for her 11-year-old son Tyrell (Coronji Calhoun) while barely trying to make ends meet. Her life takes a turn for the worse in a series of hardships and tragedy, leaving her all alone. Incidentally, Hank is on duty for her husband's execution, to her unawareness. - The Dance - Very well done (considering how much I detest romance films). Both are brought together by personal tragedies, but drawn together for different reasons. Hank wants to escape his dysfunctional family trappings and start afresh, Leticia needs companionship to escape loneliness. Their characters are so well-captured in their profiles and their sufferings, while not forgetting the hurtles of racial bigotry that both must overcome, plus their responses towards the revelation of their dark connection to each other. Forster delves extensively into the characters' afflictions to illustrate that true love can blossom not only in spite of them but also because of them. The love scenes are extremely erotic. - The Dancing - Thorton defines dysfunction in the middle of the Grotowski family. As the embittered Hank, he shows detached piety towards Buck and harsh overbearance towards Sonny. Boyle lends support as the weak (in body) but strong (in spirit) Buck, with Ledger as the strong (in body) but weak (in spirit) Sonny. Both are convincing in their roles to reinforce Hank's dysfunction background. In an Oscar-caliber performance, Berry is excellent as the emotionally fragile widow. She vividly shows Leticia's need for security following her painful tribulations, her grief with after every one of them, and her efforts to come to terms upon knowing the past between Hank and her husband. As for Mr. Combs' acting turn, I could have sworn he was trying to rap his lines. Maybe it's just me. But he delivers a brief but good moment of anguish for his characters coming to grips with his impending fate. - The Verdict - A terrific love story, even without a tragic ending. Though the interracial spin is nothing new, it is given a melancholy perspective under Forster's direction, in grim realism without the typical happily-ever-after ending. And it has great characterizations and excellent performances by the cast. The open-ending finale leaves the unanswered question as to the fate of the lovers' relationship. Then again, such is true in relationships of today.
Rating:
Summary: Grim, Tragic, Real
Review: A fascinating, shocking and uplifting movie.It is about fathers and sons,racial bigotry,relationships and the power of forgiveness.Billy Bob Thornton is fantastic and Halle Berry has never been better; this is perhaps her best acting ever. An Oscar would be the perfect reward for her gutwrenching and spectacular performance.
Do yourself a favor and see this movie now.Be warned: the first half of the movie is extremely intense, unsettling, and chilling. It is unpredictable, like real life.You will ultimately be rewarded with a great movie once you get through the unnerving parts.
Rating:
Summary: Lives of desperation converge on the raw edge
Review: Billy Bob Thornton already has a fine movie to his credit for the 2001 film season, THE MAN WHO WASN'T THERE. He stars in MONSTER'S BALL, a film that may possibly vie with IN THE BEDROOM for multiple Oscars. Here, Thornton plays Hank Grotowski, a senior corrections officer at a prison ostensibly placed in Georgia. Hank supervises a team of officers, which includes his son Sonny (Heath Ledger), and which is assigned to carry out the electric chair execution of a black convict. (Incidentally, a "monster's ball" is defined as the party thrown for a prison guard before he attends at his first execution.) Living with Hank at home is his aging, physically debilitated and venomously racist father, Buck (Peter Boyle), formerly a prison guard also. The wife of the man to be executed is Leticia, played by Halle Berry. She's gamely trying to pay the rent and keep the car running by working as a waitress, and is raising an overweight son whom she sharply disciplines in an attempt to get him to stop eating everything in sight. (Leticia is convinced that fat, black men don't have a chance in America.) Both Hank and Leticia are leading separate lives of quiet - and sometimes not so quiet - desperation, each being psychologically and emotionally dragged under by circumstances and taxing personal relationships. Then, in a series of traumatic events over a short period of time, each is cut free of burdens and left, through serendipitous accident, with only each other. MONSTER'S BALL contains several volatile scenes of emotions on the rawest of edges, and which will keep the viewer riveted. Thornton and Berry both give exemplary performances as two people in unlikely company coming to grip with personal demons. As fair warning to the sensitive, the film incorporates episodes of intense sexuality. Thornton has become one of my favorite actors, and this is the first time I've seen Berry in any role. I liked this movie very much, and would be hard pressed to choose between it and IN THE BEDROOM for this year's Best Picture Academy Award.
Rating:
Summary: Love Among The Ruins
Review: Marc Forster's "Monster's Ball" contains a host of horrific deeds and actions in its' first 40 minutes...so many in fact, I almost walked out of the theater: child abuse, attempted patricide, suicide, public execution, racial hatred to name several. I felt like yelling at the screen: ENOUGH ALREADY! But a morbid fascination with where this movie was going made me stay in my seat, mouth open...and I can honestly say that ultimately "Monster's Ball" proved to be worth my time and effort.
But,the big question here is: why show so much negativity? Does so much downbeat material make for an uplifting, or more importantly interesting movie experience? Does: "I'm so down...it looks like up to me" apply here? Why have your main character,Hank Grotowski (Billy Bob Thornton) exhibit such self-loathing and hatred and thereby making him unpalatable as a hero? And ultimately does Hank's metamorphosis into a loving person make sense?
I don't have all the answers but I certainly do have impressions and can attest to the cumulative power of the images presented. Hanks's conversion from bigot to loving, caring human being and Leticia's (Halle Berry)lover doesn't make logical sense but we are rooting for "them" to work and so when it does we believe it. Hank and Leticia are two lost souls, at the end of their psychic ropes, whose only hope for survival is each other. And so they cling and they claw and they gravitate towards each other as only the desperate are wont to do. As Leticia says to Hank in as heartbreaking a way as possible, and after years of being tread upon and beaten down: "I need you to take care of me."
Much has been said of Halle Berry's performance and it is a wonder: frustrated, down-and-out, sexually repressed, needy, tired and worn out but always exhibiting the smallest kernel of hope. Billy Bob Thornton wakes up from his zombie-like performance in "The Man Who Wasn't There" and makes Hank a living breathing character...fantastically flawed yet seemingly capable of turning his life around.
"Monster's Ball" will be a hard watch for many people and it's flaws might be enough to turn people off but ultimately it is a profoundly even perversely powerful film...not for everyone but for the few who can appreciate the redemptive power of LOVE.
Rating:
Summary: OSCAR WORTHY PERFORMANCES
Review: As soon as I saw ads for this movie with 2 favorites-BILLY BOB THORNTON and HEATH LEDGER I knew it was going to be, at the very least, a good film. Well, throw in 2 more equally SPECTACULAR performances by Halle Berry and Peter Boyle and you have a GREAT movie! Some scenes stab you right in the heart, others make you squirm from seeing such raw pain so realistically portrayed. These performances are all oscar worthy!!
Rating:
Summary: Thornton, not Berry, steals the show!
Review: First things first, sorry, Berry's was NOT the best performance in this film. Far from it. Thornton steals the show as the multi-faceted racist corrections officer. In fact, I was thinking as I watched the movie that I certainly hoped it wasn't this performance that earned Berry an Oscar. Then I saw on the box that is was. Mercy, what was the Academy thinking on that choice? I thought her performance was unnatural and contrived, and not aided by the fact that her stunning beauty belied her otherwise down and out status (I'm only willing to suspend disbelief to a certain point). As for the film itself, it grabs you from the beginning and doesn't let go. The mood it establishes, supported by an excellent musical score, almost hypnotizes you. I was disappointed by the ending, however. It seemed abrupt and gave me a feeling of incompleteness concerning the film. The fact that there wasn't much dialogue to uncover the characters along the way only added to this feeling (I felt like I was only starting to get to know these people and then . . . the credits roll). But, again, it was the mood, not the dialogue, that makes this movie work.
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