Written by: Patty Jenkins.
Year of release: 2003.
Run time: 109 minutes.
Country: United States.
Budget: $8 Million.
Gross revenue: $60, 378, 584.
This movie gained a lot of attention in gossip magazines before it was released because of the physical transformation that Charlize Theron underwent to become Aileen Wuornos, the real life serial killer that stunned America back in the late 80s. It's sort of ironic in a sense, because the underlying thematic concerns of Monster are fundamentally opposed to the shallowness of American popular culture, in which a movie is considered notable solely because a pretty actress is willing to make herself look 'ugly' for it. Monster is far more interesting than that.
Charlize Theron certainly obtains some bravery points for being willing to blunt her natural beauty for the role, however she gains the most points in her sympathetic portrayal of a character as contentious as Wuornos. Sure, Theron may look 'uglier', but she has also adopted the mannerisms, language and-- dare I say it?-- emotions of Aileen Wuornos. Watching Theron is witnessing a simulacrum of the highest order, the kind that is only matched by Daniel-Day Lewis in his best roles. It is Theron's performance that enables writer/director Patty Jenkins to deliver her message so well.
As for the message? Well, the film exposes the strange kind of apathy that humans seem to carry towards the plight of other humans. I mean, of course there are people out there that help other people undergoing terrible hardship, but how many of us are truly willing to ensure that the right thing is done by people that do bad things? When Aileen Wournos was executed, there were a lot of people out there that actively wanted her dead. Others (the vast majority) were largely indifferent to her execution, and a small minority actively campaigned to get her a stay of execution. The whole point of the movie seems to be to truly demonstrate that a grave injustice was done the day that she was executed.
Popular culture has a large impact on the definition of the morality of the masses. In other words: There are a lot of dumb mother-fuckers out there that believe that the cops are the good guys, and the people that go to prison are the real bad eggs, based solely on what they've seen in flippant fucking shows like Law and Order: SVU. Monster is probably one of the most powerful films to challenge such an attitude (I can think of two more: Dead Man Walking, and to a lesser, more whimsical, extent, The Green Mile.) Theron's performance forces us to empathise with Wournos on a purely emotional level, and effectively abolishes any debate regarding a justification for the death penalty.
The opening of the film depicts Wournos in voice-over likening herself to Marilyn Monroe: “I always wanted to be in the movies. When I was little I thought, for sure, one day I could be a big, big star. Or maybe just beautiful. Beautiful and rich, like the women on TV.” And on being noticed by males: “But even if they couldn't take me all the way like Marilyn, they would somehow believe in me just enough. They would see me for what I could be, and think I was beautiful.” The inherit sweetness of this voice-over juxtaposed with the upsetting images of Wournos performing her first acts of prostitution at the age of thirteen, is enough of a hook to become completely invested in the character. By the time Wournos shares her first kiss with her love interest, Selby (played flawlessly by Christina Ricci), to Don't Stop Believin' at a roller-rink, you know that you are in for a very different, very special kind of movie.
Wournos had a long history of abuse (she was raped for the first time at eight years old), and Theron captures this damage and frailty outstandingly. The scene where Wournos and Selby first make-out is filled with a potent mixture of warmth and anxiety. Warmth because Wournos has been so unloved throughout her life that you are happy to see her gain some happiness, and anxiety because you know-- given the synopsis of the film-- that it's all going to turn to shit incredibly fast.
Then the murders happen. In order to provide money for her and Selby, Wournos is forced to prostitute herself. In one encounter, she is knocked unconscious, tied up and raped by a man, only to free herself and shoot him multiple times. It is a kill in self-defense to be sure, but it is this moment that triggers her major mental breakdown. After this, she automatically accuses her other 'clients' of attempting to rape her and shoots them, even if the threat of rape isn't clearly established. Wournos is clearly undergoing some form of paranoid psychosis (justifiably so), and not thinking rationally. You do, however, get the sense that her behaviour seems rational within her own battered mind. Documentarian Nick Broomfield, who directed two documentaries on Wournos, articulates it a bit better than me:
“I think this anger developed inside her. And she was working as a prostitute. I think she had a lot of awful encounters on the roads. And I think this anger just spilled out from inside her. And finally exploded. Into incredible violence. That was her way of surviving. I think Aileen really believed that she had killed in self-defense. I think someone who's deeply psychotic can't really tell the difference between something that is life threatening and something that is a minor disagreement, that you could say something that she didn't agree with. She would get into a screaming black temper about it. And I think that's what had caused these things to happen. And at the same time, when she wasn't in those extreme moods, there was an incredible humanity to her.”
This humanity that Bloomfield talks about is expressed so well by Theron. The most powerful scene, the one that probably won Theron the Oscar, occurs about an hour and ten minutes in, after Wournos has finally confessed the murders to Selby. Selby tells Wournos that she can't just go around killing people and Wournos says:
“Says who!? I'm good with the Lord, I'm fine with him. And I know how you were raised, and I know how people think out there, and fuck it's gotta be that way, and they tell you 'Thou shalt not kill shit' and all of that, but that's not the way the world works Selby, cause I'm out there every fucking day livin' it! Who the fuck knows what God wants? People kill each other every day! And for what? For politics, for religion, and they're heroes... No! There's a lot of shit I can't do anymore, but killing's not one of them! And letting those fucking bastards go out and rape someone else isn't either!”
Though it may be warped and nonsensical, you definitely get a sense of Wournos' logic in this scene. She has been so abused and tormented in her past, that she is operating in an incredibly heightened survival mode. When you add probable drug induced paranoid schizophrenia to the mix, you certainly begin to understand that Wournos is no villian; rather, her life is a tragedy. Raped as a child, forced into the perpetual cycle of prostitution and drug use, there is no way that she could ever get out of the poverty trap on her own. Her execution certainly proves that the social machinery of western civilisation has little time for people like Wournos.
I guess the main question I was left with after viewing Monster was: If Aileen Wournos had of received some kind of help from a team of mental health professionals, would she have still killed all those men? The answer, sadly, is no. Monster is one of those rare, truly great films that force us to question the established status quo. And the soundtrack ain't too bad either.
Five stars:
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