A chick comes home to roost

Rating: 8/10 (5 June 2004)

"Monster" comes at the story of notorious highway hooker and serial killer Aileen Carol Wuornos from a unique angle by developing a character who is so beat up by life, so failed by society, and so weakened by emotional pain that the only way she knows to sustain the shred of happiness she finds in an ill-wrought lesbian relationship is to seduce her victims by plying her trade and then killing them to get all of their money. Theron's Oscar winning and much lauded performance as Wuornos is first rate indeed but probably over-touted because of the rub-off from her physical metamorphosis and the intense drama of her situation thanks to the vision of the film's relatively obscure auteur Patty Jenkins. It is rare that a film engenders such compassion for a killer as does "Monster" in a society which tends to simply lump all street whores, drug addicts, homeless people, etc. into the "loser" category so they can be swept under the cultural carpet and forgotten. Kudos to Jenkins for this moving and disturbing look at the price of ignoring those most in need but too fractured to cry for help. (A-)