Mediocre Movie filled with great performances

Rating: 5/10 (31 May 2004)

`Monster' is a film filled to the brim with great performances, but is handicapped by it's slow motion and lackluster cinematography. Many times I sat in the theater on the edge of bored-only to be aroused by the talent displayed. Then it was back to the same old thing. There were moments of insight and clarity, but it was too far between them.
Although I cannot expect every film to blow me to the back of my seat with every shot, I was expecting something more considering the fact that the entirety of the subject matter could fill volumes about Eileen's life.
Instead, she was a plain old hooker with a gun. Maybe that's how she really was, but it wasn't quite enough.
Theron's OSCAR notwithstanding, there's really no meat to this film. Surely, she deserved the award; however, I find it sad that she had to win it for this particular piece of cinema.
Really, I can't say that this is a bad film; only that it is not a great film, which is bad enough considering the talent arrayed.
I can only give this a `5' out of `10,' making this just average. `Monster' is indeed a film filled with great roles, but the wrapping wasn't enough for it.