Aileen Wuornos was lesbian and a prostitute who went on to achieve notoriety as that rare bird called a female serial killer. (Serial killers are stereotypically men.) Charlize Theron took on the task of bringing Wuornos' actions to the big screen.
MONSTER starts out by showing Wuornos on the verge of suicide, then going to a bar to drown her sorrows. What she doesn't know until she gets there is that this particular watering hole caters primarily to gays, and it is at this gathering place that she meets the only person she'd ever love, Selby (Christina Ricci).
The movie goes from there, to show Wuornos the serial killer as well as Wuornos the human being. I thought that this was the best part of MONSTER - Wuornos was not a cardboard-cutout, standard-issue stereotypical serial killer. Rather, she was made all the more frightening by being portrayed as a human being rather than a cartoon character. It is all too easy to forget that Wuornos was a human being who got executed in Florida for the crimes she was convicted of committing.
I appreciated having the love story in the film as well, especially the feeling one gets at the end of the film, knowing that Wuornos feels betrayed by Selby's turning state's evidence and testifying against her. In fact, it seems as if Wuornos can't win for losing; prostitution was the only job she could ever get, and she encountered nothing but disdain and even hatred.
This is a film I would recommend, but keep in mind that it is rated R for a very good reason. There are sex scenes in the film which I feel should have earned MONSTER an NC-17 rating, but which are necessary to establish Wuornos as a lesbian. The same can be said of the violence and foul language. It is difficult to portray Wuornos as anything other than a sewer-mouthed murderess, and Charlize Theron takes on the thankless task and works a miracle, creating a multidimensional character who happens to murder and use an unconscionable amount of foul language. But the language, the sex, and the violence earned MONSTER its rating.
If you do decide to see this movie, and you have a strong stomach, you won't be disappointed.
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