癲狂院 Vixen Owl Cigar..。o○

The Things You Do for LOVE...


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Just as the comparisons between Robert De Niro's Raging Bull metamorphosis and Charlene Theron's work continue to surface, it is hard to avoid comparing the subject matter and what critics may have to say twenty years from now after the furor over this celebration of female serial killer Eileen Wuornos has subsided.

Theron, like De Niro, put on thirty pounds and did a superlative job in becoming possessed by the spirit of one of the most truculent figures in American folklore.
Wuornos, like Jake La Motta, was the victim of a deprived childhood, a dysfunctional family, a non-existant home life, a brutal street life and a subhuman legal system.
For people like these, life is a survivor series that makes the boob tube version a pathetic joke.
Theft, abuse, self-degradation and violence are all part of daily living for such people, and only by cinematic depictions of such lifestyles are we able to acquire cursory understanding of how the horror stories in our headlines come to pass.. Filmmakers such as Scorsese and Jenkins do not offer these works as excuses, but rather explanations.. Without actors such as De Niro and Theron, however, we could hardly arrive at the level of empathy that Bull and Monster provide....

Wuornos, referred to as "Lee " throughout the flick, is a hooker nurturing suicidal tendencies when she comes across Selby Wall (Christina Ricci ) at a gay bar one night.
Selby comes on to the paranoid Lee and entreats her to spend the night at her home where she lives with her stepmother and live-in beau from the Church community.
The one-night stand blossoms into a torrid affair as Lee eventually convinces Selby to run away with her.
Only Lee's narrow escape from a sexual predator ends up as a theft and murder that plunges her into the abyss.
Her ill-gotten gains provide the only means of keeping her relationship with Selby alive, and it eventually turns into a spree of serial murder as Lee does whatever it takes to pay for their creature comforts.

【Christina Ricci】Monster【Charlize Theron 】
Some Thoughts On Charlize Theron's Monster..
Charlize Theron gives the best female performance of the year in capturing Aileen physically and emotionally, in both cases a wreck.
The film opens with a suicidal Aileen sitting in the rain getting ready to snuff out her existence.
Having five dollars left from her last john -- her only job since her early teens has been prostitution--she enters, unknowingly, a gay bar to have a final drink.
She struts into the place with a gruff and manly persona, an obvious mask to hide the cowering child inside.
A younger and more obviously vulnerable Selby (Christina Ricci) immediately is attracted to her.
Aileen quickly opens herself to Selby and develops perhaps the first real human connection of her life.
Aileen may or may not be gay, but following her experiences, a woman is the only person with whom she can possibly relate.

Aileen is brutally raped by a john, and probably saves her life by grabbing a gun from his car and killing him first.
In stealing the rest of his money , Aileen envisions using that seed to grow a life for herself and her girlfriend.
She springs Selby from the family she's been staying with, cronies of her father, and they run off to a motel together.
Aileen, searching for any straight job available, tries to wedge herself into a society she's never been part of and that coldly rejects any advances she attempts.
Selby, seeing the idealistic mirage starting to fade, explodes at Aileen one night thereby pushing her onto exactly the wrong path.

Aileen cannot be forgiven for committing her murders, which should go without saying.
But, at the same time, how much culpability can be placed on the shoulders of a person who never received a moral compass and whose only education was victimization?
If a dog is beaten by its owner in puppy hood and shown no , can one possibly be surprised when that dog becomes a vicious adult
If there is nobody willing to guide the victimized back onto the right path, the outrage we rightfully feel when blood is spilled may be tragically misdirected.

This is a very good movie but it is nowhere near the five star rating.
It is closer to three stars but the amazing performance of Charlize Theron earns the fifth star.
The Oscar is well deserved.
Even though her face is filled with makeup and prosthetics she manages to portray all the emotions the character is experiencing.
The makeup team led by Toni G (Dawn of the Dead, Planet of the Apes ) also deserves a big applause for their work.
Her performance is a Gr8 example of total immersion in the role.
She had to gain almost 30 pounds to give her the required look.

The biggest problem of the movie is its apologetic story toward the main character.
The movie is full of references to Aileen's hard life and the abuse she suffered as a child.
But hard life is no excuse for murder.
Half the population of the planet would be murderers if it was so.

The script is based on the stories Aileen told her bunkmate in prison.
But are those stories true or are they the product of a deranged mind of a convicted killer, we will never know.
So this story is one dimensional, from a point of view of a killer.
There is no mention of the suffering she caused by killing those men, the loss their families had to endure.
Her first victim, the rapist is a despicable human being but, what are his reasons to act that way.
For movie buffs, action flick fans and pro-feminists alike, "Monster " is a Gr8 addition to your library.
Theron's work may well go down alongside De Niro's as another Movie of the Decade.


Only Time Will Tell...