Running Time: 111 minutes
Rating: R
Is it possible to humanize a serial killer? You can make them funny and witty (Hannibal Lector in his trilogy) but one would be hard-pressed to be sympathetic to his plight and his murders. One could probably call this the greatest accomplishment of Monster; this ability to at least show how someone could lose their sense of right and wrong and kill without discrimination is impressive. Interestingly enough this is not the movie’s greatest acheivement. Instead, the performance of Charlize Theron as
Aileen Wuornos was the girl who never got what she wanted. She wanted to become pretty and let that take her to places only dreamed about. But it didn’t work about and pretty soon (by the age of 13) she had become a hooker with the hope that this would get her somewhere. Over time, she became a little paunchy and her skin reddened and painful to look at. One night she wanders into a gay bar where she meets Selby (Christina Ricci), an 18-year-old girl sent to live with her aunt to “cure” her of her homosexuality. They initially repel each other; Aileen isn’t a lesbian, she says. After the realization that Selby isn’t interested in sex, just someone to talk to, they begin to bond for obvious reasons (loneliness, isolation). Eventually their friendship becomes romantic, but it is secondary to the bond that brings them together. They are both the first person to care about the other.
Unfortunately, as Aileen continues hooking to get money, she is beaten and raped by one of her “johns.” When she, surprisingly, is able to break free from the guy, she shoots him dead and takes the money and the car. This first (and the only) defensible murder seems to usher in a new opportunity for Aileen and Selby; they have a car and money to run away with each other. But there is the underlying feeling that this new found freedom will destroy both of them and, knowing the ending, this gives everything a grimy undercurrent. Selby catches on first when Aileen tells her about the murders. One can see her love for Aileen beginning to compete with her knowledge of what is happening. As they travel, inexorably tied, the downs begin to outweigh the ups and we know that Aileen will be caught.
Besides Theron’s excellent performance, she is supported ably by Ricci and by Bruce Dern as a friend who sees that there is something fundamentally wrong with her. Since the movie is about Wournos and not Selby, Selby often gets the short end of the stick with character development even though her character is just as compelling as Wournos.
In the wake of Theron’s performance, it should also not be forgotten that this is director/writer Patty Jenkins’s first major movie and as such, it is a triumph. Her directorial skill is obvious and, while not showy, very competent. Her script is also very good in showing Wournos’s transformation to a killer out of self-defense to someone who only cares for the lives of herself and Selby. There are two instances where Aileen has a choice to kill someone and may or may not. What she does with those two occurances illustrate her character’s changes perfectly.
Again, having seen Theron previously in Devil’s Advocate and The Italian Job I knew she wasn’t just a pretty face, but it is amazing that she would have a performance like this in her. It is not just the weight gain and makeup that make her performance this good (though they help), it is her complete submission into her character that rivets your attention to the screen. She shows perfectly that Wournos was not always a monster, but that she became one through her somewhat defensible actions. Theron also has a solid cast and script behind her to elevate this to a movie that refuses to play by stereotypes and instead, shows real people doing horrible things.