|
Review:
Monster (2003, New
Market, directed by Patty Jenkins, 109 min, R) is a biography of female
serial killer Aileen Wuornos (Charlize Theron), who was
executed in Florida in October 2002 after “rolling” and shooting several
johns when “working” as a hooker. The spree starts with self-defense, when a
customer tries to rape her. In the meantime, she has evolved into a lesbian
relationship with Selby Wall (Christina Ricci), which grows increasingly
desperate. The film does present well the “zero tolerance” treatment of her
by an increasingly polarized and stratified society (the job interview scene
with the lawyer is especially chilling). In the end, she is a Monster. This
is hardly representative of GLBT film, and it is indeed an anomaly; her
problems seem to stem when she simply falls off the train and simply has no
outlet except for rage. The johns are also creepy: middle-aged overweight and
withering men with balding legs as well as pates. They are hardly looking for
sexual princesses. The filmmaking, with its narrative simplicity (it reminds
one of “The Onion Field” and “Blood Simple” in places) is masterful in its
abstraction, yet it still comes across as a study or “etude” with no real
redeeming message. On Feb 14 2004 I saw the documentary Aileen:
Life and Death of a Serial Killer, directed by Nick Broomfield and Joan
Churchill, from HBO/ Lantern Lane Entertainment; in the meantime visit Roger
Ebert’s review at the Chicago Sun Times. Some (such as ABC’s
John Stossel) have criticized Monster as, by
comparison, a “fact or fiction” melodrama. But the new documentary
(Broomfield had made one in 1992 about her) leaves open a bit the question of
any self-defense. (On the other hand in her 1992 interview she had insisted
that all the murders had been self-defense.) The on-location scenes in her
home state of Michigan near the end of the film, however grainy,
are chilling. The real Aileen is shocking, and the performance in Monster
by Charlize Theron is amazingly close to the mark (she gained
thirty pounds for the role, and won Best Actress for 2003.) I note
with some humor that the NBC soap opera Days of Our Lives also
is stopping and starting every commercial break with its gradual unveiling of
a female serial killer (Marlena), “the Salem stalker,” in this case
an M.D.
|