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Monster

Review by: Alysa Salzberg
AlysaSalzberg@TheCinemaSource.com

As I see it, there’s generally one of two ways a serial killer flick can go. There’s killer camp – for example, the fantastic Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer, which features inimitable bits of dialogue like:
“But Henry, I thought you said you killed her with an axe?”
“Oh yeah, that’s right.”
Or there’s deadly serious -- for example, the Hughes Brothers’ awesome From Hell.

But sometimes these movies can diverge from the norm. Aileen Wuornos, the subject of writer/director Patty Jenkins’ movie Monster, diverged from the typical serial killer profile herself. One of the first female serial killers, Wuornos (played in the film by Charlize Theron, who won an Oscar for the role) was not only a killer, but a victim, a prostitute who’d been raped and sexually abused multiple times, even in her childhood. A lot of people might sniff at this, saying how easy it is these days to go soft on criminals, or citing individuals who’ve overcome similar problems without resorting to violence. But Jenkins doesn’t see it either of these ways.

For Jenkins, in fact, Wuornos’ story isn’t so much a tale of murder, as it is one of tragic love. Cast out by her family at an early age, and denied any kind of sympathy or care, let alone romance, Wuornos eventually found these things in one person, a young woman named Selby Wall. Selby Wall (a pretty, enormous-eyed Christina Ricci), is actually a composite of various people in the real Aileen’s life, but the end result remains the same: from love and compassion, Selby’s feelings eventually turn to betrayal.

In some ways, Monster might make you think of Peter Jackson’s film Heavenly Creatures, another true tale of madness, love, and murder. Only, Monster has none of the beauty, none of solace in an imaginary world, that Jackson’s film has. We don’t see Aileen’s actions from her perspective, as we see the actions of the two girls in Heavenly Creatures. Instead, Jenkins relies heavily on dull, bleak reality. Aileen’s murders are often shot on or near the actual Daytona Beach sites where they occurred in real life, and just as they’re about to happen, the world isn’t transfigured by the vision of a self-righteous or insane killer. Jenkins puts it plainly before us: Here is a man. Here is a woman. Here is a gun. Here is a gunshot. Here is a corpse.

The real Aileen left hours of video tape, and countless letters behind. Yet none of these, Jenkins seems to show, can truly explain the tangled emotions and memories that went through her mind with each killing. The only insight the film lets us have is what we see. Theron must convey her conjectures about Aileen’s thoughts and emotions with her body and facial expressions. And boy does Charlize earn that ...