A Monstrously Powerful Movie

Rating: 10/10 (4 June 2011)

In the late 80's and early 90's, roadside prostitute Aileen Wuornos killed seven men before going to trial and being executed in 2002. We have seen our share of "Lifetime" TV dramas and biopics about serial killers, but this story is a particularly hard one to tell. Patty Jenkins and leading lady Charlize Theron have done that with "Monster."
On the verge of suicide and left with only 5 dollars in her pocket, Aileen walks into a saloon, which she quickly registers as a lesbian bar. Along comes the shy Selby Wall, a lesbian who is living with relatives who hope to cure her of her change in sexuality. Soon enough, Aileen has found her soul mate in Selby.
On a night out turning tricks, Aileen is raped and beaten by a man, but then shoots him to death and takes his money. From then forth, she has sealed her fate and goes on to kill more men.
First time director Patty Jenkins wrote and directed "Monster" not as a study of a murderer, but as a tragic look into the mind of a woman who has found no hope for herself in life. At times, we feel sympathy for Aileen, especially the first time she kills someone. But as her victims grow more innocent (even when her last victim tries to help her but is killed anyway), we don't know what to feel. Maybe we aren't supposed to feel anything for Aileen, but just to know who she is and what she's done allows us to connect with her. She is a monster, as the film's title tells us, but also a broken creature who has suffered enough in life to the point where she can't love and can only respond with anger and violence.
There's no argument about it. Charlize Theron has given the performance of her career. As great an actress as she is, this is the role people will remember her most for. It's not just the makeup transformation Theron goes through (I didn't even recognize her in the film). She becomes Aileen Wuornos. Her body language, her twitching eyes, the way she brushes her hair back, the way she holds a cigarette...Theron is gone and Wuornos is ever prevalent throughout the film. This was an Oscar well-deserved, and no one will ever be able to match Theron's portrayal.
Christina Ricci's performance as Selby tends to be the one thing people don't agree with about the film. This isn't bad acting that Ricci gives us, but a rather accurate portrayal of this girl. Selby's naivety and shyness is broadcast nicely by Ricci, no matter what the critics may say.
This movie could have taken the easy way out and simply studied Aileen Wuornos as the so-called "first female serial killer." But when you are able to make a movie that observes such material as a love story and an account of a brutally damaged soul, then that is a triumph. Thanks to Theron and Jenkins, "Monster" is that kind of triumph, a film that will stay monstrously powerful for a long time.