A Sordid Life: Aileen Wuornos

Rating: 8/10 (20 December 2005)

What drives a person to commit murder? And then do it again and again with no apparent end to the madness? One may never know, and certainly MONSTER does not offer easy answers because no matter how you look into it, Aileen Wuornos was herself a kaleidoscope of changing, flighty emotions, ranging from occasional sadness, an unrepentant attitude, sheer rage, disbelief at what was happening to her, and basic incomprehension.
People will know, at least in a marginal way, the story of the Wuornos' trial and for the eight murders she was convicted for. MONSTER attempts in a way not to romanticize her as to why she committed these murders, but to offer viewers a glimpse as to what it was like being her, living under her skin day in, day out, seeing no way of escape and desperately needing it until one day she just woke up and snapped.
Charlize Theron deglamorizes herself so well she is unrecognizable as the ill-fated Wuornos, but her disguise does not overcome her. As coming from the wrong side of the tracks Theron gives this abrasive woman a soul down to her mannerisms and her harsh stare, and even a small scene in which Wuornos admires herself in the mirror before she leaves for hooking -- mannishly so -- speaks volumes about who she is at that moment. Wuornos may not ever receive sympathy from the public given her interviews and her combative parting last words, but at least in Theron she has found someone who under the guise of acting, could indirectly speak for her and somehow give clarity to the torment and the unstoppable fury that dominated her entire life.