Monster
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Annie Corley, Bruce Dern, Charlize Theron, Christina Ricci, Lee TergesenBrand: Monster
DVD: Region Code 99
Audio: Spanish (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 5.1
Format: AC-3, Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DTS Surround Sound, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: Anamorphic Widescreen, 1.85:1
Running Time: 109 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2004-06-01
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
Product features:
- TESTED
Movie Reviews of Monster
Movie Review: Great movie with strong acting and writing
Summary: 5 Stars
Sometimes there comes a film that just makes you want to go take a shower because you need to after watching it. No, not those types of movies, I'm talking about those movies that suck you in and make you feel like your part of the movie from beginning to end and don't let go till the credits role. I felt this way after seeing Charlize Theron's performance in Monster, a well acted, well crafted film from Patty Jenkins.
For those of you who didn't follow the story during Oscar time a few years ago, the performance and transformation of Ms. Theron is amazing and a earns over her Best Actress Academy Award several times over. The movie follows the criminal rise of serial killer Aileen Wuornos, a prostitute in Daytona Beach, FL. After a life full of curve balls, we first met Aileen under an overpass waiting to kill herself with a rusty old revolver, the only thing that stops her is her thoughts to spend the money she made on a John a few hours before hand. At a local gay bar, she meets Selby (Christina Ricci) a local lesbian girl living in Florida with family friends. Selby's life isn't great either, she can't work due to a broken arm, she is trying to escape her father and a life of dullness in Ohio and her boarders at the home don't approve of her lifestyle. After a night of heavy drinking, Selby and Aileen become fast friends on a track to become lovers. Aileen convinces Selby to move out and live with her on the streets. Selby hesitantly agrees to this venture and we begin a journey with Selby and Aileen. Selby soon learns that Aileen has killed a man for brutally rapping her and stole his money, but Aileen is apologetic and tells Selby it was in self defense and that it would never happen again.
Aileen begins to try and make her life turn for the better, she applies for jobs all over the Daytona Beach region and is turned down, cruelly is some cases, and this only fuels her rage. Aileen decided to go back to hooking on the streets and highways but decides to kill the Johns before the sex act and takes their money and cars. Eventually, this begins to catch up to Aileen and Selby as they start to run all over the state, trying to avoid the law. Aileen is eventually caught and sentenced to be executed by the state of Florida.
To find a fault with this film would be hard. If any, I would have to say that Selby could have been fleshed out a little more but her character is not lacking in development but pales in comparison to Aileen in back story and motivation. The work of director Patty Jenkins (who also wrote the script) is well done, crafting a tale of murders that allows room for motive and reasoning behind the ones we see on screen. Ms. Theron and Ms. Ricci are both excellent in playing their characters; especially the emotion between the two and the acceptance to what Aileen becomes towards the end of the film is noticeable.
Ms. Theron's performance is the highlight of the film. Not only her physical transformation but also her emotions on screen make you cringe after each murder we watch her commit. As the writer, Ms. Jenkins does an excellent job letting us into Aileen's head and explaining motivations to us. Aileen begins to rationalize her actions after each killing, talking to herself in a fast and worried voice and as the killings and her confidence progress; she begins to tell her victims why she is doing what she does before she kills them. As a whole, Ms. Theron's performance should rank among the all time greats.
The other actors in this film excel when ever they are on screen and there isn't a down performance among them. Bruce Dern's role as Aileen's male friend/confidante is good and would probably be great if he had more screen time. The strong supporting role of Christina Ricci is a sight to see playing the mousy and shy Selby who gains confidence and feeds off Aileen's own bravado increases, only to collapse once again once Aileen succumbs to the manhunt for her and gives up.
Watching this movie makes you wonder exactly how the victim's families feel. Most of the men we see killed on screen were married and had families. Yet they were killed brutally in the act of soliciting sex from a prostitute and left for dead, even some of these men in the film make lewd request to Aileen before she is about to render her services. You have to wonder if these scenes were those made by Ms. Jenkins in the writing process or taken form transcripts of Aileen Wuornos to the police and how they reacted seeing these scenes on film.
All in all, this movie can be summed up this way: Great for a viewer who enjoys a movie with strong performances and strong dialogue, though the movie is violent and does not blink when looking into the life that Aileen has lead.
Summary of Monster
DVDCritics have universally praised Charlize Theron's performance in Monster, and the praise, for once, is astonishingly deserved. The gorgeous star of The Italian Job and The Cider House Rules vanishes into the character of Aileen Wuornos, a real-life serial killer and prostitute who murdered at least seven men in Florida. Monster traces her relationship with a young woman named Selby (Christina Ricci, The Ice Storm, Buffalo 66), which intertwines with Wuornos's murder spree. This remarkable movie finds compassion for Wuornos but unflinchingly faces her brutal crimes; Theron expresses this woman's horrific life history without softening her terrifying, dead-eyed stare. This is a gripping, devastating performance, a physical and psychological transformation comparable to Robert DeNiro's in Raging Bull. The movie's moral and emotional complexity wouldn't succeed without this searing performance--but succeed it does, and it will stick with you for some time afterward. --Bret Fetzer
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