A Dark and Sad Portrait of Real Self-Destruction

Rating: 10/10 (26 January 2004)

Charlize Theron does an intense, dark, and unbelievable transformation into Aileen Carol Wuornos, a highway prostitute turned serial killer. It took me some time to acknowledge that Charlize Theron was the same person as the character that she was performing on the screen. As Aileen, Theron turns in a performance that is quite possibly her best ever and will take considerable effort to surpass in the near future. It's a role that explores the depths, physically and mentally, of her acting talents. Her performance in this harrowing story is alone a reason to watch this movie.
She plays a character that is so damaged, confused, and lost in her search for what I can only define as hope. Her character has been scarred mentally and physically since childhood by parents, friends, and strangers. This movie makes no excuses for what Wuornos, but does provides an account of her steps down the path the complete and utter ruin, from which she will not be able to return. Theron's portrayal doesn't leave you thinking that this is a woman who didn't get what she deserved, but as a woman who could have been someone or something else if she had chosen differently. The movie shows us that even in the worst of circumstances you may find hope. Sadly, sometimes finding that hope may be too late.
Christina Ricci is equally as compelling as Selby who is one of the catalysts for Wuornos transformation from highway hooker to highway killer. She is a simple person, filled with emotional and mental complexities that stem from a religious upbringing and dealing with the reality that she is a lesbian. Two worlds that seemingly never seem to co-exist in harmony from what I can tell. Selby isn't completely faultless either, but apparently is the weaker to the two women when it comes to have a spine, which we can only guess stems from the innuendo that her family life was one where women did what they were told, when they were told to do it. The conclusion of the movie indicates that this may not be far from the truth.
The movie is designed more to give insight to what happened to these two women in the brief period of time that their lives crossed. It makes no attempt to vindicate either of the two women's actions. The movie paints a painfully truthful picture of the darker side of this flawed world we live in, which many choose to ignore and deny even exists.