Good movie, great performance

Rating: 8/10 (11 April 2004)

Charlize Theron's performance is better than the movie itself, and the movie is very good. She plays prostitute Aileen Wuornos who killed seven men in the 1980's. Here is a movie that does not try to justify or condemn the things she did, it just shows us how events happened and in the end we are able to understand most things a little better.
This approach makes the movie probably better than if it had taken sides. We see and hear how Aileen's life must have been terrible from a very young age. She was abused and abandoned by people close to her. She has been a prostitute since she was thirteen and now she is through with it, but she meets lesbian Selby (Christina Ricci). Whether Aileen is gay or not does not matter, Selby is the first person in a long time who really cares about her and Aileen feels kind of happy for the first time in her life. But then a client beats and rapes her and she snaps and ends up killing him and after this other clients.
The movie could turn into a thriller or a real crime movie, but since it has its focus on Aileen and Selby it turns out to be a dramatic movie, with some really disturbing moments. Although Aileen does things we can not approve of you feel sorry for her almost the entire time. It is Theron's performance that makes sure we do this. In every scene we can read her eyes, see how she feels and what she has been through. Theron won the Oscar for her Aileen and it is hard to argue about that. Ricci does a pretty good job as the naive Selby as well, although you should not compare her with Theron. This is a good movie, made even better by a great performance.