Theron's performance is as powerful as it is intriguing

Rating: 8/10 (8 July 2012)

Films take on an extra power when they show us something we can't seem to believe. Such is Charlize Theron's performance as "America's first female serial killer," Aileen Wuornos, in "Monster." Transformation blows us away, and to see a blond Australian bombshell become a homely bisexual prostitute-turned-murderer reminds us of the power that a performance can have on a film.
Patty Jenkins' drama shouldn't come across as a character study as much as it does, but when your lead performance sucks in such an overwhelming amount of attention, it becomes all about how awestricken the audience is at that transformative turn. At the same time, Theron's performance also inflates the film a great deal, covering up some pacing weaknesses and a love story that never quite makes sense.
It's hard, however, not to be distracted by Aileen, the completely disheartening yet fascinating character Jenkins and Theron have crafted. A hooker ever since she was physically able, Aileen is especially self-sufficient and — even if misguidedly — self-confident. She's unafraid to speak her mind and surprisingly smart on her feet when her brashness lands her in trouble.
But things get extremely complicated when Aileen meets Selby (Christina Ricci), a lesbian loner who takes a liking to Aileen's somewhat masculine demeanor. When Aileen starts to reciprocate those feelings, her life begins to change, and it does even more so when she's forced to kill a man who picked her up and attempted to rape her.
Jenkins provides a number of intriguing psychological insights into Aileen. As she discovers the added benefits of killing the men she solicits sex to (revenge, a sense of fulfillment, money and the ability to try and forge a future for herself and Selby), we get an even greater sense of who she was, and more importantly, what motivated her. It's enough to understand exactly why she did it, even though her actions are nearly impossible to condone.
The construction of this psychological profile takes a good deal away from the journey of Aileen and Selby's relationship, which should come across more as the core of the story considering how big of a role it plays in forcing Aileen into this spiral that she can't undo despite her conscience.
A lot of that comes from Selby's end, as the attention on Aileen makes it harder to understand Selby's motivations for climbing in with Aileen as deep as she does. Ricci gives an honest and likable performance; we believe that she's just naive enough to run away with Aileen but smart enough to know she needs to be a bit cautious. As things hit the fan for Aileen, however, we seem to lose that access to Selby, which is the character we are expected to identify with more.
With Theron, the complete disguise of the makeup job certainly inflates the extent to which we believe she is giving us an incredible performance, but as you start to adjust to the brown contacts, nasty teeth and 30 extra pounds, you see Theron's brilliance comes from within. She shows a true commitment to the psychological disaster that her character had to have been in order to do what she did. Although the character is written brilliantly, this is not the kind of Oscar-winning performance in which the role won the award instead of the actor. Not just anyone could've done it.
As a whole, "Monster" gets a bit dicey. The scene writing is quite powerful. Given the nature of Aileen as a character and Theron's execution of it, you feel as if at any moment something of serious dramatic consequence might occur and it usually does. Jenkins really captures the emotions of each scene too, whether its love, fear, hate, etc.
The struggle comes from the whole, as "Monster" drags at times. There's a "Thelma & Louise" nature to the story, yet constantly we come across reminders that the action of the story is static. These women aren't actually on the run — they're just hiding frantically. The plot kind of goes in cycles with each new cycle bringing us closer and closer to their likely demise. We feel those stakes and Aileen and Selby have natural (albeit agitating) reactions to when things go awry, but it's tough to stay engaged when their actions will have such obvious consequences.
But that's kind of the point. There's never a concerted effort on Aileen's end to lie or get away with anything. She is nothing if not honest, and we respect the hell out of her for it. We want to scream at her when she says that she never had a choice to become who she became, but we understand why she feels so powerless, and that unlikely sense of empathy makes "Monster" a strong film.
~Steven C
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