Monster

2003's MONSTER is a portrait of Aileen Wuornos, the first female serial killer to get the death penalty.  It details the multiple killings that led her there.  Customers seeking her services as a prostitute.  Mostly middle aged married men looking for a brief thrill in their cars.  The first one brutally raped her.  Some of the others even tried to help the obviously downtrodden soul, but she killed them too.  Maybe it was psychosis, thinking every guy soliciting her wanted to brutalize.  Maybe it became some sort of addiction, justified in Wuornos' mind as support for she and her younger, innocent girlfriend, Selby Wall.

Well, that's her name in this movie.  As played by Christina Ricci, she's schoolgirl shy and entirely unsure of herself.  Aside from an increasing awareness of her sexuality, which has banished her from her parents' home. "Lee" is openly hostile at first when Selby offers to buy her a beer.  But soon the troubled, suicidal lady of the evening is smitten.  As played by Charlize Theron in one of the most celebrated performances of the time, Lee is perhaps as insecure as her charge, and often fronts with rage and denial.  She's like any dreamer, promising the earth, more and more desperate to make good on it.  Writer/director Patty Jenkins presents Aileen Wuornos as a victim.  Of a rotten life and no chance for any measure of success barring quick cash. 

But I do not join those who berate MONSTER for showing Aileen's heart.  Those who were affected by Wuornos' actions understandably would be appalled by such an approach.  To them, she was a one dimensional murderer, a waste of a human being. They might call for a movie about the victims.  Jenkins does not hold back, showing one pleading for his life, crying over his family.  Lee also cries, but perhaps by then is powerless to stop.  I think Jenkins does a reasonable job of balancing any sympathy the viewer might have for her.  This is essentially a love story, and that is how it works best.  The relationship depicted between the leads is believable and heartbreaking.  Wuornos maybe never knew such love and acceptance, yet displays it still when inevitably her lover has to testify at her trial.

MONSTER does suffer some dramatic obviousness at times, and the use of too familiar pop songs was a distraction for me, but probably fits.  I was also disappointed in BT's bland scoring.  Silence would've been far more effective.  Using Florida locations for the shoot adds real authenticity.   Theron, whose transformation is utterly astonishing, is the true reason to see this film.  The physical adjustments are just the beginning.  The actress really seems to get how a sociopath (though one with honest feelings) thinks and acts.  I can't say enough about the performance, even as the movie around her is solid but short of remarkable.