Still difficult to watch, but what a performance

Rating: 8/10 (29 November 2010)

Though it's easy to wag fingers and tut tut about the wrongs and rights of today's society, at least Patty Jenkin's portrayal of Aileen Wuornos shows us, in difficult, often frighteningly graphic detail, what happened, when - and maybe why.
We know the outcome, so, thankfully, we're spared all the legal court cases and all that. We're allowed, or offered to make up our own minds and ultimately, judgements. How many of us who might have witnessed that bad behaviour and then tut tutted and cursed 'society' and then gone back into our own world? Rarely, though, do we think of the causes, or the indeed, the outcomes of such. This film, at least for two hours redresses that.
Incredibly well cast, Theron, obviously, but also Christine Ricci. She must have been considerably older than the innocent teen who gets sucked in by Wuornos, but who is brilliantly believable too. As the emotionally mixed-up, parent-pressured youth who just wants to break away and looks for any means in which to do just that. We all know of someone close to each of us who may have been in that vulnerable position.
As for Charlize Theron, who, helped by big-brand beauty ads, is one of the most glamorous actresses in Hollywood. Breaking away from that 'bimbo' stereotype, maybe, but putting on the extra pounds, and a truly believable state of non- make-up, might have been just too risky for many of her A-lister colleagues.
Though Wuornos, or the character portrayed as her by Theron seldom displays tenderness you certainly feel that wrath when the inner hatred explodes from within - and obviously outwards.
I've yet to see the other biopic of the same woman 'Aileen - Life and Death of a Serial Killer' directed Nick Broomfield and released the same year. It's a documentary so wouldn't have the Oscar-winning performance but in a large way, I have no wish to. I'm glad that I've now experienced 'Monster' three times (when it's on UK TV) and it's still a love/hate thing. But I DO have a strong desire for watching fluffy, cute bunnies afterwards...