Charlize Theron earned that Oscar, she did...

Rating: Null/10 (25 April 2004)

Charlize Theron earned that Oscar, she did. While this movie, in not atypical Hollywood fashion, plays fast and loose with the real world facts of the case, first time feature director Patty Jenkins casts the story of real life `first female serial killer' in the mode of two other films about disturbed, murderous individuals: Terence Malick's "Badlands", and Mary Harron's "I Shot Andy Warhol." And, in light of this film's debt to Malick's classic take on the Charlie Starkweather case, it's more than a little unfair that Christina Ricci has taken some criticism for the low-key nature of her performance. Her character here is basically Sissy Spacek's from "Badlands," repainted as a half-closeted lesbian. Heck, Ricci's character here doesn't even get to narrate the story. That job falls to Theron, and it's part of what makes this film a compelling and harrowing trip through the mind of one disturbed individual.