A torture with no purpose

Rating: 4/10 (14 January 2004)

I don't mind 'heavy' films or books. I mean works that take you to dark places of human soul, that lead you through suffering, pain or filth. That is alright as long as there is some ultimate purpose to all that excruciation, as long as their creators intend to lead their audience to something other than pain and filth. It does not necessarily presuppose a happy ending. Just 2 weeks ago I've seen "House of sand and of fog". There was no heroes riding into the sunset there either, but heavy and dark as it was, there was catharsis in there, some perspective of human soul, or whatever this undefinable thing that art gives us.
There is nothing like that in "Monster". Oh, sure I can appreciate the art of makeup people and some mighty acting on Charlize Theron part, but I still do not see what this film has been supposed to convey. Most importantly in no way I can feel anything for Aileen Wuornos, however terrible her childhood and adult life were, however hard she were hit by society. And I understand that some may consider this view to be a snobbish perspective of a well-to-do suburb dweller who steers clear from what he terms as 'low-life'. Be it as it may I believe that I've wasted 2 hours of my life - an impression I'm not getting from 'low-life'-related 'Taxi driver', for instance.