Two Glamorous Hollywood Women Transform Themselves in Dark American Story

Rating: 9/10 (29 January 2016)

When film actresses Charlize Theron and Christina Ricci walk out on red carpets at international film and awards festivals, they often look like they stepped out of a shoot with vogue magazine, donning satin gowns costing $1000's. And yet in "Monster", about the notorious and mentally-ill Aileen Wuornos and her lesbian lover, Theron and Ricci don the clothes and outlook of lower-middle and even lower-class America. No longer are they the elite of Hollywood but two struggling lower-class nobodies, except, unlike her girlfriend, Wuornos is mentally ill, possibly schizophrenic, and she eventually becomes a serial killer.
Charlize Theron, in a performance which is nearly unbelievable in her transformation from Hollywood starlet to Midwest hooker for which she won the Academy Award for Best Actress, plays Aileen Wuornos, an unstable prostitute who engages in a romantic fling with a young lesbian, Selby, played by Christina Ricci in an equally-compelling performance. (Wuornos' real lover's name was Tyria Moore.) Selby is a misunderstood and somewhat unloved young woman constantly residing with different family members who don't know what to do with her. For them, her lesbian predilections are anti-Christian. She meets Aileen Wuornos in a gay bar in Florida, and she's the first woman to respond to Selby's advances. Although Aileen is a prostitute and very high-strung, often flying into rages for little reason, she seems at first harmless. Shortly thereafter, Wuornos takes on a "client" who drives her to the woods and subdues her. Wuornos breaks free and ends the prostitute-client relationship--violently.
At the same time, Aileen and Selby's relationship is on the upswing, and they decide to run away together, infuriating the younger woman's family who know how Aileen makes her living. Aileen decides to renounce prostitution, but can't find a legitimate job. They are running out of money, and Selby is disillusioned with the entire affair. Her lover then returns to prostitution but with a twist. She's not going to engage in any sexual acts, as she had before. She's going to use her clients in a different way.
This is a very dark story about the underside of American life. Part of what makes it very disturbing is how real everything is. The dive bars, the cheap cars, and broken down houses are places often not portrayed on the large screen. None of the characters are particularly likable, except Selby (Ricci). Her parents are god-fearing but seem very heartless. And Theron as Wuorno is so unbelievably convincing you can't reconcile what she does in this film with her persona at social events. After production, Theron and Ricci returned back to the world of the Hollywood elite, but this story is forever etched in celluloid.