If you have never watched the police interviews you should, because they tell you everything you will ever need to know. Aileen Wuornos sits in front of the detective and laughs, or cries, or curses, or prays, like a flip book character sped up or slowed down by some unseen hand. Wuornos is as stable as boiling oil in a hailstorm. You cannot help but walk away believing that woman is capable of murder and just as incapable of understanding what it means.
“Monster” the 2003 movie written and directed by Patty Jenkins takes us all down to Wournos’ level, and holds us there for the better part of two hours. Charlize Theron slips inside of Wournos’s skin like a doppelganger and she won an Oscar for it. It’s hard to believe it’s Theron in there, and it’s hard to imagine what it was like. “I watched a lot of film” Theron said when how she asked how she managed to become that character. And if you watch the police
interviews you can see that Theron did.
The movie guides the viewer through a side of life in the Sunshine State that excludes Mouse Ear Hats and Princesses. There are no tourists here. There are no happy endings. There is the harsh reality that life is process, and at one point Wournes is rebuffed by a potential employer, who says, “…When the beach party is over, you don’t get to say, “You know what? Now I think I’d like to have what everybody else has worked their entire life for.” It doesn’t work that way.”
Was Wuornos guilty of killing seven men? The film says she was, and she confessed to the murders. It’s easy to believe she did, and convenient. All the evidence, most of it circumstantial, points to Wuornos, but we will never really know. All the killings took place, if you believe what you’re told, between one woman and her victim. The weapon was never found, but the Florida coast is a very large place.
I’m not here trying to make some sort of argument that Wuornos was innocent of the crimes, or that her execution was anything but a bit of mercy for everyone involved. But unlike most movies whose subjects are serial killers who are captured, tried, and put to death, “Monster” leaves you with the feeling terrible things have happened and nothing, nothing at all, was done to make anything better at all.
I watch this movie every once in a while to remind me there are monsters, and not all of them are things we can see.
Take Care,
Mike
Monster (2003) – Rated R
Take Care,
Mike
Mike writes regularly at his site: The Hickory Head Hermit
Always thought Charlize was a hottie until I watched Monster… Couldn’t look at her for about two years after watching this.
That was one hell of a make-up job. They showed her on the set getting ready and getting into character.
It was not pretty, Titus, it was not pretty at all.
This is that movie about the redhead who likes bows and arrows? Right? 🙂
No, that’s a totally different species of crazy there, Ron.
Monster is the movie I hate to love, or love to hate. I can’t argue it was good. But it leaves a VERY bad taste in my mouth.
Sadly, Aileen, or at least Charlize Theron’s portrayal of Aileen reminded me, in skin-crawling accuracy, of my mother. My mother was not a prostitute, or a murderer, but the WAY she did things, the reasoning behind things. Like a macabre butterfly, flitting from one screw up to the next, with no recollection or lesson learned from the past screw ups.
I’ve watched the movie twice. It was all I can handle. To think of watching it again makes my chest tighten.
My mother has been in the ground for ten years now. I don’t miss her. But, more important than that: I don’t BLAME her. Monster taught me that at least. We are made by our experiences. Aileen, and my mother, didn’t start off being bad people, they just sort of fell into it without a better path to take.
RIP to them both.
Chris,
whoa
dude
Hmmm… Not on Netflix Streaming. Not on Redbox. I found it on Amazon Streaming for $3.
http://www.amazon.com/Monster/dp/B002FPKIIW/ref=sr_1_1?s=instant-video&ie=UTF8&qid=1341164746&sr=1-1&keywords=monster
I saw it on the shelf at Sam’s Club last night.
I already have a copy but at that price.
An Oscar well deserved, I thought Ms. Theron did a fantastic job in that movie. I happen to own this one. I’ve loaned it out a few times, every time I get it back the person I’ve loaned it to is blown away. One of my favorite movies, not for the grisly subject matter, but for the fine acting.
She did really, really, well.
Scary well, on fact
It’s an excellent film, because it makes you squirm the whole way through. Charlize is perfect in the role. I haven’t watched it in a while, and have been meaning to of late. Thanks for the reminder.