Monster By Kirk Honeycutt Monster challenges audiences with an unrelieved portrait of self-destruction and horrific violence. American movies don't get much grimmer than this. This challenge is made doubly hard by writer-director Patty Jenkins' decision to supply little in the way of back story or context for the title character's behavior. So this portrait of "America's first female serial killer," depressing and shocking under the best of circumstances, may baffle viewers unfamiliar with her case. Publicity concerning Charlize Theron's remarkable physical transformation into Aileen Wuornos through makeup and weight gain may attract the curious, but boxoffice potential for this downbeat tale appears modest at best. The film opens in New York on Dec. 24 and in Los Angeles on Dec. 26. Jenkins chooses to concentrate on a brief period in Aileen's life, from 1989-90, when the hitchhiking prostitute killed several male clients, crimes for which she was executed by the state of Florida last year. During this time, Aileen happened to meet Selby Wall (Christina Ricci). The two fell in love and began living together in cheap motels and then a rental unit. Turning the tragic story of Aileen Wuornos into a love story between two misfits probably makes sense from a dramatic point of view, but it does distort the cruel life Aileen lived virtually from birth. From two documentaries by Nick Broomfield we know about the mother who deserted Aileen, the grandfather who beat her and how all her subsequent relationships ended in betrayal, making her a predictably paranoid person. Her life leading up to meeting Selby — a life marred by rape, incest, abuse and abandonment — is barely hinted at in Jenkins' script. Selby represents a last hope for the woman. After meeting in a bar while in suicidal despair, Aileen reforms momentarily and seeks a legitimate job. When no one will hire a woman with no experience, degree or resume, Aileen returns to hooking. Then when a john turns violent, she shoots and kills him in self-defense. She steals his money and car but doesn't immediately tell Selby about the killing. When the money runs out, she proceeds to rob and shoot several other johns. The money supports her and her lover, while the murders allow her to act out her rage against men. (It's worth noting that for all the film's gritty authenticity, even shooting at actual locations where Wuornos committed her crimes, these stagings are purely speculative. At her trial, Wuornos claimed self-defense in all the killings. In his documentaries, Broomfield was never able to get a clear picture of what happened. Before her execution, not realizing the camera was still rolling, Wuornos admitted she changed her story of self-defense to one of robbery and murder in order to hasten the execution, which after 12 years on death row she welcomed.) Theron gives a gutsy and gritty performance as she uncannily slips into Aileen's mannerisms and rhythms of speech. But Aileen remains a remote figure. Ricci, in a more reactive role, nevertheless captures the somewhat exploitative element in their relationship, playing the young woman, for all her love of Aileen, as one who is in constant need of money and stimulus. BT's nerve-jangling music keeps the viewer wary, while Steven Bernstein's sharp, controlled cinematography heightens the flesh-crawling reality of these sickening events. Yes, the story is an ugly one, but the actresses command our attention and demand we confront this unrepentant "monster" to examine her humanity. |
