Monster [2003] [DVD]

In January 1991, aging prostitute Aileen Wuornos was arrested in Florida. She was suspected of killing seven men since 1989, leaving their bullet-riddled bodies near highways, and stealing their cars and cash. In January 1992, Wuornos was tried, convicted, and sentenced to death, mostly on the evidence of her own confessions and the testimony of her lesbian lover during the killing spree, Tyria Moore. In October 2002, the state took her life. MONSTER is Aileen's story.

Even a cursory reading of the Wuornos tragedy on the Web will indicate the challenge of Charlize's incredibly taxing role. It's not just the make-up (shaved eyebrows, false teeth), body alteration (thirty pounds added weight), and costumes that the actress put on for the role. It's the walk, talk, nervous mannerisms and body language. Even aura, if you believe in such. Theron is unrecognizable as herself. The transformation is apocalyptically stunning.

The film does, of course, take liberties. Tyria Moore, 24-years old when she met Wuornos in 1986, becomes "Selby" (Christina Ricci), who's about 18 in the script. The screenplay inferred to me a time span of perhaps several months for the Aileen-Selby relationship, and that the first killing occurred about when the two first met. In fact, Aileen and Tyria spent four years together, and the first murder was committed only towards the end. In any case, Ricci deserves consideration for an Oscar in a supporting role as the troubled, naive, and clueless Selby totally out of her depth.

At one point, Theron's Aileen states that she was raped by her father's friends, and that he subsequently beat her for it. In fact, Aileen's real-life mother divorced Leo Dale Pittman a couple months before her daughter's birth and Aileen never met her natural father. Aileen and a brother were subsequently raised by their maternal grandparents, Lauri and Britta Wuornos. The grandfather drank heavily and was physically abusive. Aileen engaged in pre-marital sex at an early age, and was pregnant at 14. After giving her child up for adoption, she ran away from home to take up hitchhiking and prostitution. While MONSTER doesn't excuse Aileen for her the murders she later committed, it reveals Wuornos for the emotionally and psychologically tortured casualty of life that she was and who, in the end, "volunteered" for the death penalty. In this case, execution may have been a mercy.

MONSTER gives evil a human face, a fact that will undoubtedly cause discomfiture in some critics who believe in a morally black and white world.

MONSTER isn't an easy presentation to watch. As the film unwound and the power of Theron's performance washed over me in waves, I found myself sliding lower and lower into my seat. The rape scene that sets Aileen on her murderous path is vicious. And it doesn't get any easier with the individual killings, especially the last when any vestige of sympathy the audience might have for Wuornos is forfeit. Based solely on the intensity of the subject matter, MONSTER goes up against HOUSE OF SAND AND FOG as arguably the Best Picture of 2003, though neither won the award.

Writer-director Patty Jenkin's sets out to destroy the image of Wuornos as a 'monster'. She is, we discover, a victim of an abusive childhood, a lonely, lost stray condemned to eke out a loveless living as a prostitute, forever brutalised by the men who use her. Into her life comes a lonely, loveless lesbian, running away from home.

As their relationship flares and Wuornos discovers love for the first time, she has to question her relationship with men. Nobody will give her a job - she's unqualified for anything, is humiliated in her attempts to get off the street. So she is propelled back into prostitution, where things now take an explosive turn as she begins to defend herself with a gun ... then goes on to exact retribution against males for the abuses she has suffered.

But the film plunges straight into the action. You get glimpses of Wuornos' abusive past. You can empathise with her killing for the first time, after she is subjected to a brutal rape by one of her clients ... and anticipates worse to come. You can see the escalation in violence and the hideous logic in which she finds herself trapped, killing to raise money to sustain the only love she's known.

But somehow, the actual narrative doesn't work. In life, Wuornos was violently abused by men, including her close relatives; she was forced to live in the woods like an animal when she was 13. She turned to crime and prostitution to survive. And the Broomfield films reveal her to be deeply psychotic, convinced she was controlled by radio or that Christ would send a spaceship to carry her off to safety. You don't get any of this depth or any sound analysis in the film "Monster".

Charlize Theron is excellent in the lead role. She captures Wuornos' mannerisms and physicality superbly. Christina Ricci is equally good as her lover. Unfortunately, much of the hype about the film concentrated on the makeup and physical changes Theron had to undergo to play the part - obliterating her glamorous image and looks to appear tawdry and cheap. You sense, also, that the violence and mental torment in Wuornos's character have also been sanitised, playing down her confused state to make her actions appear more rational.

Nick Broomfield demonstrates how murder is a gateway to celebrity in the USA - Aileen Wuornos became almost a brand name, and a small industry grew up to market her. But it's all about the selling of image, reducing her history to easily digested, easily understood packages. As a Probation Officer, I've worked with a lot of serious offenders: trying to understand what makes them tick is a complex task. "Monster" doesn't quite achieve this. Theron might get into Wuornos' skin, but the story never fully gets under it. As entertainment, it's a very good movie. As a piece of social analysis, or social realism, or criminological inquiry ... it has severe weaknesses.

The two disc version offers lengthy documentaries on the real Wuornos and the usual features on the making of the film. It slurs slightly into self-congratulation when it might have made a more intensive inquiry into the woman and her judicial murder ... sorry, execution. But it's a good production, overall. If I have reservations about the narrative and the effectiveness of the story in presenting Wuornos to the world, I have no reservations about the acting. It is a tale which will engage and entertain ... but don't forget to ask questions afterwards.

Perhaps the real worth of the movie is that it does inspire you to look for more information and to delve into the case a little deeper - in which case, I'd suggest you begin by looking at the Nick Broomfield films. However, you then start to wonder if you're turning into a voyeur, if you're simply contributing to the cult of notoriety / celebrity?

Writer-director Patty Jenkin's sets out to destroy the image of Wuornos as a 'monster'. She is, we discover, a victim of an abusive childhood, a lonely, lost stray condemned to eke out a loveless living as a prostitute, forever brutalised by the men who use her. Into her life comes a lonely, loveless lesbian, running away from home.

As their relationship flares and Wuornos discovers love for the first time, she has to question her relationship with men. Nobody will give her a job - she's unqualified for anything, is humiliated in her attempts to get off the street. So she is propelled back into prostitution, where things now take an explosive turn as she begins to defend herself with a gun ... then goes on to exact retribution against males for the abuses she has suffered.

But the film plunges straight into the action. You get glimpses of Wuornos' abusive past. You can empathise with her killing for the first time, after she is subjected to a brutal rape by one of her clients ... and anticipates worse to come. You can see the escalation in violence and the hideous logic in which she finds herself trapped, killing to raise money to sustain the only love she's known.

But somehow, the actual narrative doesn't work. In life, Wuornos was violently abused by men, including her close relatives; she was forced to live in the woods like an animal when she was 13. She turned to crime and prostitution to survive. And the Broomfield films reveal her to be deeply psychotic, convinced she was controlled by radio or that Christ would send a spaceship to carry her off to safety. You don't get any of this depth or any sound analysis in the film "Monster".

Charlize Theron is excellent in the lead role. She captures Wuornos' mannerisms and physicality superbly. Christina Ricci is equally good as her lover. Unfortunately, much of the hype about the film concentrated on the makeup and physical changes Theron had to undergo to play the part - obliterating her glamorous image and looks to appear tawdry and cheap. You sense, also, that the violence and mental torment in Wuornos's character have also been sanitised, playing down her confused state to make her actions appear more rational.

Nick Broomfield demonstrates how murder is a gateway to celebrity in the USA - Aileen Wuornos became almost a brand name, and a small industry grew up to market her. But it's all about the selling of image, reducing her history to easily digested, easily understood packages. As a Probation Officer, I've worked with a lot of serious offenders: trying to understand what makes them tick is a complex task. "Monster" doesn't quite achieve this. Theron might get into Wuornos' skin, but the story never fully gets under it. As entertainment, it's a very good movie. As a piece of social analysis, or social realism, or criminological inquiry ... it has severe weaknesses.

The two disc version offers lengthy documentaries on the real Wuornos and the usual features on the making of the film. It slurs slightly into self-congratulation when it might have made a more intensive inquiry into the woman and her judicial murder ... sorry, execution. But it's a good production, overall. If I have reservations about the narrative and the effectiveness of the story in presenting Wuornos to the world, I have no reservations about the acting. It is a tale which will engage and entertain ... but don't forget to ask questions afterwards.

Perhaps the real worth of the movie is that it does inspire you to look for more information and to delve into the case a little deeper - in which case, I'd suggest you begin by looking at the Nick Broomfield films. However, you then start to wonder if you're turning into a voyeur, if you're simply contributing to the cult of notoriety / celebrity?