Monster

I just finished watching Patty Jenkins' film Monster and I'm completely impressed.

The story is based on the life of Aileen Wuornos, a prostitute turned serial killer. Wuornos killed seven men who picked her in the Florida area in a seven month period starting late in 1989.

The film begins with Wuornos (Charlize Theron) thinking about killing herself, but decides not because she wants to spend the last five dollars she made from a 'john.' She wanders into a bar and is picked by a young lesbian Selby (Christina Ricci). Even though Wuornos is not gay, Selby is nice to her, and she eventually falls in love with her. They move in together and Aileen provides for Selby. Wuornos tries to get a legitimate job, but finds it impossible with no work history. Aileen is forced to return to what she knows to make money.

Unknown to Selby, Aileen has already killed a client who violently beats and rapes in a gruesome scene involving a tire-iron. Wuornos justifies killing the other men by past sins they may have committed. The exception being the last man, a good family man, who is just trying to lend a hitch-hiker some help.

Aileen confesses about the first killing to Selby. Selby forgives her, but doesn't learn about the other murders until she sees their images in the media. Aileen is caught. Selby testifies against her to avoid going to jail. Aileen is found guilty an executed by lethal injection in 2002.

What I found most amazing about this film was Charlize Theron. Yes, I cannot even believe I'm writing this. This was one of the greatest acting performances I have ever seen. After gaining thirty pounds; having her hair thinned, and prosthetic work, I couldn't even recognize this blond beauty. Her nervous behavior was incredible, all the subtle twitches, how she reassures herself by staring favorably into a mirror. Charlize Theron showed real nerve by taking on a role under a first time director in a controversial non-commercial film. Christina Ricci gives a strong performance as the excitement seeking Selby. Solid supporting jobs by Bruce Dern and Scott Wilson.

On an interesting side-note, Scott Wilson plays one of the victims in the film. The complete opposite of the part he played in In Cold Blood, the Truman Capote true story about two men, (Robert Blake and Scott Wilson), who kill a family on a Midwest farm for hidden money.

I thought this was Monster's ball or the Disney's Monster but it is far from a cartoon!
Anyway it sounds alittle like a musical to me!Was it written as a book first and later a movie?
Just wondering if I should add this to my book list if it is a book!See you around!JM

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Nice review, however, you can't pay enough to see this sick drama. Portraying a women that chose a seedy way of living uh ..doesn't appeal to me, regardless that this beauty Charleen chose to wear prostictics to make this film, Hey give me a diet of twinkies and pay me the loonies and I'll see.

Good review Loner… I was extremely curious about this one….




As Loner stated, Monster is based on the very real serial killer, Aileen Carol Wuornos, who was executed by lethal injection in Florida for the murders of seven men…. Within a month of her arrest, Wuornos sold the rights to her story and investigators in her case soon followed… to date, I believe there have been several books written about her life… a very interesting documentary, Aileen Wuornos: The Selling of a Serial Killer by Nick Bloomfield… and surprisingly enough, an opera called America’s First Female Serial Killer …

Wuornos’s father, Leo Dale Pittman, a sociopath and convicted child molester, was murdered in prison in the late 60’s….

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Kudos Loner. I'm meaning to see this next week, so I'll wait to post more until then. Just wanted you to know that your review is appreciated.

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"Today, war is too important to be left to politicians. They have neither the time, the training, nor the inclination for strategic thought. I can no longer sit back and allow Communist infiltration, Communist indoctrination, Communist subversion and the international Communist conspiracy to sap and impurify all of our precious bodily fluids."

He got rep from me... great review!

me too! whadaya know...

That's cool, how boring would it be if we all liked the same things?

By the way, are you Canadian eh?


Thanks Caitlyn, after reading your post I see some of my info was inaccurate, so i fixed it.


Thanks LordSlaytan and Sir Toose.

If you all would like more info there is a stort article in the February edition of Jane magazine(Charlize Theron on the cover) on what motivated her to play this role.

It also shows the steps taken to make her look like Aileen Wuornos.

Oops… I hope you didn’t think that was the reason behind my post… serial killers have always interested me (morbid I know) and I tend to get carried away when I talk about them sometimes…

Thanks for the info about the article in Jane…

Are you following me?


a$$hole.

Does anyone know why they named this movie Monster? Most of the movies based on male serial killers have much different titles so I am a little curious about their choice for this one…

maybe it's something along the lines of 'hell hath no fury like a womans scorn.." (i am not trying to start a feministic discussion, just answering)

it is interesting enought though.

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I am moved by fancies that are curled
Around these images, and cling:
The notion of some infinitely gentle
Infinitely suffering thing.
T.S Eliot, "Preludes"

I'd be a hypocrite if I did that.

I got the method of her execution wrong.


The title, I think is based on a carnival ride, a ferris wheel I think.

There is a line in the movie about, "riding the monster."

But of course, it probably has more than one meaning.

From what I've heard, the movie attempts to paint the woman in question as a rather sympathetic light. If so, I think the title is meant to be ironic.

Thanks guys… If there is a significance in the title, I was just curious about what it was… Various groups have claimed Wuornos was more victim then victimizer… but when you read her history, she exhibited extremely unstable behavior very early that magnified the older she got…

And Loner, she was sentenced to die in the electric chair but was then given a choice between the electric chair and lethal injection not long before the execution was carried out…

She has a speech in the movie that explains where "Monster" comes from.

I was blown away by Theron. She put a huge amount of work into her physicalization of this character. You see a lot of mannerisms that are common among women who have been through what this character has. It's completely different from anything we've seen from this actress.

Regarding her portrayal as "sympathetic", it is, but it's not manipulatively so. They're not glorifying her in any way. They DO show her motivations clearly, however, and the result is that you do feel for her. Kind of an amazing feat, I think.

I saw this the other day and was blown away. I posted my review for it in my review thread. Loner, what did you think of Ricci's performance?

I thought she did a good job.

She just didn't have much to work with and was overshadowed by Charlize Theron's performance.

After the Academy Awards there has been a discussion around here about Theron's award. Everybody seems to think that she earned the award but at the same time some critics have raised the question if Theron would have gotten it if she was ugly in reality. In other words, did she get it for her acting skills or for ther transformation stunt? Would an actor who really looked like Theron's character have received the same kind of attention and praise?

What do you guys who have seen Monster say about this?

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The novelist does not long to see the lion eat grass. He realizes that one and the same God created the wolf and the lamb, then smiled, "seeing that his work was good".

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They had temporarily escaped the factories, the warehouses, the slaughterhouses, the car washes - they'd be back in captivity the next day but now they were out - they were wild with freedom. They weren't thinking about the slavery of poverty. Or the slavery of welfare and food stamps. The rest of us would be all right until the poor learned how to make atom bombs in their basements.

I believe she won on her acting skills, but her looks had to play into it.

I'm sorry you haven't been able to see it yet Piddzilla.