The Human Soul is an Abyss

Rating: 7/10 (13 January 2012)

So the great Portuguese poet Fernando Pessoa wrote in one of his poems. And this is true. Besides that the society where we live now creates these monsters like this movie clearly shows. Two young women (one of them much younger than the other) coming from quite opposite social and living poles meet one another by chance, fell in love with one another and start a tragic life together. The eldest had thrown herself into prostitution at the age of 13 after (like she herself tells at a given moment) having been continuously raped by a friend of her father. After having killed a client in self-defence, she takes hold of his gun and becomes a serial killer in part because she needs the money she takes from the victims after killing them, to support herself and her girlfriend but also because she hates them and herself and the life she leads. In the abyss of her soul good and evil live side by side and weave tragically together. On the good side there is also still the love she maintains by her companion who is a fragile person and much weaker than her and raising a few problems to her. Both characters are well depicted psychologically in words, manners and behaviour though Charlise Theron (Aileen the prostitute) has maybe too many facial and corporal ticks and twitches but maybe also the real woman (this is supposed to be a veracious story) was also like that. Anyway the performance of both actresses is good enough though not particularly brilliant. Summing it up although this is not exactly a masterpiece (even because the story is simple enough) but certainly a rather good movie.