Good flick, but too long and why Charlize Theron?

Rating: 8/10 (11 January 2004)

This movie kept me glued to the edge of my seat longer than it probably should have. The director probably could've cut about 30 minutes out of the middle without anyone noticing the difference.
Ricci was pretty convincing as Selby--her performance, makeup and camera angles made Selby look a lot shorter and younger than I remembered Ricci. Theron's portrayal of Lee was okay, but a little overdone. Worse, Lee's voice seemed to become Theron's voice at times. The extensive makeup job and the tattered clothes couldn't conceal the starlet underneath. My question is: Why in the world did Theron get this role? While she played it well enough to convince me that she's marginally able to be something other than a softhearted seductress, surely the director could've found someone more convincing and cheaper. Are we so addicted to the clique of top-name actors that we can't recognize a quality movie when we see one?
Still, I liked the movie as a character sketch. As in life, most of the characters were ambiguous. However, I wasn't too impressed with the movie's blanket portrayal of Christians as sexually repressed and emotionally abusive. Surely, at least one of the Christian characters could've been at least a little less warped.