Amazing Oscar-winning performance by Charlize Theron.

Rating: Null/10 (29 April 2005)

It is easy to see that Charlize Theron has a pretty face, and it was also pretty easy to see that she was an accomplished actress. I first saw her in the newest version of "Mighty Joe Young", and afterwards several other roles. I have become a fan of hers. But her performance here as the Florida prostitute Aileen Wuornos, is nothing short of amazing. She put on a few pounds, she wore appropriate makeup, and she is so good that one easily forgets that it is Theron we are watching. The way she "channels" the real Wournos is eerie.
The story itself is not pleasant. We have a lady who had a very difficult childhood and, while she appears to have been intelligent, had a very shaky concept of reality. She had remembered hearing someone say, years earlier, that you can be anything you want to be. So, when she decides to go straight and make an honest living, she figured all she had to do was dress nicely, interview, and get a nice job. It just doesn't work that way.
SPOILERS. Abused from a very young age, "Lee" learned early that she could get money and favors via sex. She really hoped someone would "discover" her and she would become another Marilyn Monroe. (Actual photos of her show she wan't really that attractive.) As an adult, prostitution was the only trade she knew. At a gay bar one night she meets up with Selby (Christina Ricci), a closet lesbian still living at home in a garage apartment. Initially repulsed, Lee takes to Selby and they start living together in cheap motels. One 'john' gets rough with Lee, ties her up, she gets loose, grabs a gun, and shoots and kills him. Having a tough time keeping Selby happy, she decides killing and robbing more would not be any worse, and becomes a serial killer of sorts. Finally ID'd then jailed, Selby is persuaded to testify against Lee, who was executed in Florida in the early 1990s.