REVIEW MONSTER

Patty Jenkin's Monster, which will have its international debut at the Berlinale Film Festival, promises to be one of the most thought provoking films of the year. The film is about Aileen Wuornos who killed seven men in Florida she claimed bought sexual services from her and were about to rape or assault her. She has been called the first female serial killer departing from the pattern of women merely killing known relatives. Throughout the century, the serial murder genre has captivated audiences, emerging out of the media sensationalized crimes of Jack the Ripper in the 19th century. On screen 'copy cat' murders that depict the rape and mutilation of young women have horrified and fascinated audiences for decades, often revealing the changing status quo of feminism.

Wuornos was executed in 2002 for the murders with six death sentences, the largest of anyone on death row in Florida. Her life is also the subject of two documentaries. British producer Nick Broomfield, who made the 1993 documentary on her execution day said, " Today we are executing someone who is mad. Here is someone who has totally lost her mind".

Jenkin's film does not take up the media interest in the trial. Instead, she provides a chilling portrait of Wuornos starring Charlize Theron, also producer of the film. Theron's acting is superior and one of the best jobs on screen in a long time. The former model has been given parts over the year in which she has never been given a real chance to demonstrate her acting abilities. Her classic good looks grant her casting roles where she is at the least decorative and at the most bursting through the seams of her parts.
She received a Golden Globe for best actress and is nominated for an Oscar.

Playing the tough Wuornos from a low income class is done convincingly and without the affectations of Julia Roberts who looks and acts like she hails from Rodeo Drive no matter what class she is supposed to represent. Consequently, there is some humbug by critics appalled that the stunning Theron would take such a role and 'uglify herself'. However, the real disturbance is the life of Wuornos and how her life spins out of control.

The film begins just before Wuornos is going to put a gun to her head. She seeks shelter in a women's bar and soon enters her first relationship with Selby Hall, a woman who later testifies against her in the murder trial. Jenkins has changed the pragmatic real life Selby into a naive girl looking for thrills, played by Christina Ricci. The contrast is so apparently wide that when Wuornos tells Selby she's never going to meet anyone like her again if she doesn't wait for her, she believes her. Theron provides quality form to the part in the film when Wuornos decides to stop selling sexual services and get a regular job. The absurdity of this becomes clear when she goes on a series of interviews and is repeatedly turned down. It would appear that Wuornos had neither the preparation nor education for a 'real job'. Add to that emotional scars from several years of molestation by a relative. She grows up with skewed thinking that the attention she gets from boys is genuine and is unable to set boundaries. The film hones in on how incest survivors often wind up selling sexual services and working in the pornographic industry.

The story of Aileen Wuornos is tragic, and though director Patty Jenkins does not condones the murders she commits, she accords sympathy for this messed up life - the most that Wuornos will probably ever get. Monster shows the modus operandi of a female serial murder that claimed she murdered her johns in order to fight sexism in the world. The reasons for murder are quite different from those of the Green River slayer Gary Ridgeway who admitted to executing 48 women, as many as he could that he thought were prostitutes, all young, low-income runaway girls who performed sexual services he paid for before killing them. The film is disturbing and Theron's role interpretation is a performance that will be remembered for a long time.


Moira Sullivan