Pity

Rating: Null/10 (25 January 2004)

This movie is so dominated by Charlize Theron's performance as serial killer Aileen Wuornos that it's easy to overlook the screenplay and the direction, both of which are of a quality to help unveil Theron's towering talent. But in the end it's that talent that overshadows everything else in the movie.

Christina Ricci, for example, all but vanishes in the thankless role of Selby, Wuornos' shallow and frightened lover. There is an innocent but oddly and cruelly calculating quality about Selby, as Ricci plays her, that descends from Nabokov's Lolita herself. Wuornos never has a chance as long as she's with Selby, as Ricci's performance makes clear. But in order to see it, you first have to tear your eyes off of Theron. Good luck with that.
And where did Theron's talent come from? Where did *Theron* come from, for that matter? Up until this movie, my impression of her is of something exquisitely decorative off in the corner of a few movies like Mighty Joe Young, or a highly competent -- but no less decorative -- actor in movies like The Cider House Rules. The first time you get a glimpse of her in Monster, when Aileen Wuornos ambles into a bar near the start of the movie, a gasp goes up from the audience. It's an amazing, unbelievable, transformation.
It's so shocking, in fact, that it almost seems like a stunt in a couple of places. I suppose that's basically what it is. But that doesn't matter. Theron deserves all the praise she's been getting for this performance. When an actress of Theron's physical beauty strips down to her underwear for a scene, or appears nude, the last thing she ordinarily wants the audience to feel for her is pity. But that's what Theron goes for in this movie, and that's what she achieves. She is a gifted actor, and a very brave woman.

Highest recommendation.