An uneven melodrama saved by the hands of Charlize Theron

Rating: 6/10 (19 January 2004)

A powerful performance by Charlize Theron. I never in my life though I would ever say those words. Dancer/model Theron always struck as me as pretty first, actress second. It didn't help that she was normally cast in dreadfully mediocre films as a woman in peril: "The Astronaut's Wife", "Sweet November", and so on. Her work in "The Italian Job" hinted at more ability than she led many to believe, but it's her role in "Monster" that reveals to the world that without a doubt, Theron is a power to be reckoned with.
Based on the the life of Aileen Wornos, the film begins in the 1980's, when Wornos (Charlize Theron) was a hitch-hiking prostitute. As the film opens, she's about to kill herself after spending her last money on beer. Unwittingly walking into a gay bar, she meets young, naive Selby (Christina Ricci), who's been sent to live with her aunt in Florida in an effort to cleanse her of her homosexuality. Aileen, who's never been in a relationship with a woman before, warms up to her. As their relationship progresses, the two being to believe they're in love, and Aileen resolves to clean her life up and find legitimate work to support them. After a humiliating series of job interviews, she returns to prostitution. When one of her johns tries to rape her, Aileen kills him. This begins a new chapter in her life with Selby, where Selby doesn't ask where Aileen gets her money, and Aileen is filled with a twisted sense of empowerment, killing any john she can in the belief that all of her customers are potential rapists. She went on to become the United States' first female serial killer, and she shot several men before being arrested.
But the story of Wornos and Selby is immaterial, really. The main attraction to this movie is Theron's performance. Theron also served as producer on the film, and she studied footage and documents on Wornos extensively (the real Wornos was executed in 2002). Theron disappears so fully into Wornos that even when you look in her eyes, there's no trace of the actress there. Much has been made of Theron's physical transformation, and it bears repeating. Theron's Wornos is someone with a soul so broken that it can't help but physically manifest itself. Model-beautiful Theron has done much to reflect this, including adding a highly unflattering 30 pounds, allowing her hair to become stringy and greasy, and gaining a hard, leathery skin tone. Add to this an uncanny duplication of Wornos' speech and mannerisms, and Theron's transformation becomes downright chilling in its accuracy.
This is both the film's greatest asset and its biggest weakness. Theron's performance is so amazing, it makes the other actors around her seem unprepared. Christina Ricci tries her best with the innocent, gullible Selby, but she's too kewpie-doll cute and innocent to make you believe she'd ever spend her life with someone as scarred as Wornos. At the same time, Theron unwittingly spotlights the wavering, uneven tone of writer/director Patty Jenkins' overall film. Theron is amazing, but Jenkins never knows quite what to do with her. Jenkins alternates, sometimes within the same scene, between making us feel sympathy for the damaged Wornos (a victim of childhood abuse, teenage pregnancy, and a prostitute since the age of 13) and making us feel repulsed by the levels of cruelty and abuse she herself can descend to. Jenkins wants to have it both ways, but she never displays enough evidence to leave the decision up to the audience. Additionally, the scenes exist out of a clear sense of progression. We're never sure how much time has passed between scenes, and no attempt is ever made to put the movie into a historical context aside from a few song references and hairstyles. This makes the film seem like it's taking place in a different world altogether as opposed to being set in the real one, starring a cast of people based on real humans.
Without the unbridled power and ferocity behind Theron's performance, "Monster" would be a highly forgettable, well-intentioned biopic that suffered from a lack of vision. It's Theron that holds the film together, that serves as its cold heart and its anchor. Besides being one of the best female performances in a while, it's a revelation of Theron's dedication and ability. A high recommendation for fans of strong female performances, but for a more coherent story about Wornos, I recommend you check out one of Nick Broomfield's documentaries. 6 out of 10.