Monster

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Charlize Theron had a heck of a year in 2003. She appeared in the best summer popcorn flick of 2003, "The Italian Job". Later, she emerged from the typecast-as-the-pretty-girl prison with her amazing performance in "Monster". Her performance is so powerful and riveting that she won the Best-Actress Oscar in February of 2004. Sometimes, people deserve the Oscars that they win, but sometimes, they don't. Theron certainly earned hers, and while I think that it's too early to agree with movie critic Roger Ebert's assessment of her performance ("This is one of the greatest performances in the history of cinema."), I think that Theron out-acted just about everyone else in at least the past five years.

"Monster", written and directed by Patty Jenkins, is a fictionalized account of the life of Aileen Wuornos (Theron). Wuornos was called the first female serial killer in American history. Her crimes are certainly heinous and what made her noticed in the first place, but the movie shows how Wuornos did not set out to be a criminal. Rather, devastating circumstances in her life forced her to turn to prostitution, and turning tricks meant dealing with evil men who beat and rape women.

Wuornos meets Selby Wall (Christina Ricci), and the two become lovers as they drive through Florida. Wuornos wants to give up prostitution in order to live a normal life with Wall, but neither of them is able to find gainful employment. Therefore, Wuornos returns to prostitution, and she soon runs into a man who almost kills her. Wuornos is able to fight off her attacker, and her rage against the unfairness of life leads her to killing several other men for their money and for their cars. Eventually, the police catch her, and she spent more than a decade on Death Row before being executed in 2002.

For the movie, Charlize Theron gained more than thirty pounds and underwent make-up sessions that turned her into someone that looked far from what one would call "pretty" in today's world. The make-up plays a key part in Theron's performance since it de-glamorizes the seductive sheen that movies often have. In addition to looking the part, Theron also plays the part convincingly. She projects her character's insecurity by strutting. She projects her character's vulnerability by attacking other people before they can attack her. She projects her character's desperate love for Wall by talking about tackling responsibilities so that she can support the both of them. In the movie, Wuornos may be an unpleasant sight as well as a criminal, but Theron makes us understand how sad and pitiable the character is.

So much attention has been focused on Theron that it's easy to forget that the movie also has another excellent performance. In fact, I think that Christina Ricci should've been nominated for an Oscar, too (in the Best-Supporting-Actress category). Theron probably overshadowed Ricci due to the former's freedom to act "big" given her role, but Ricci has the arguably more difficult task of making it believable to audiences that her character would want to be with Aileen Wuornos in the first place.

On a narrative level, "Monster" is really no more than a simple road movie. There are the usual rebellions, harsh realities, crimes, cheap motels, long drives in cars without air conditioning, etc. Also, although the movie is not even two-hours long (it has a running time of 109 minutes), it feels lengthy because of several slow spots as well as the repetitiveness of some scenes. However, Charlize Theron and Christina Ricci both deliver rich, layered, and complex performances that distinguish "Monster" from similar movies.

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