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Monster (DVD)

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Monster (DVD)

Quote-start

An unloved monster

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5 Nov 4th, 2008 

57 Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful

Advantages:
Powerful acting, thought - provoking subject

Disadvantages:
Violent, disturbing, inaccurate and flat script at places

Recommendable Yes:

Detailed rating:

Did you enjoy it?

Story

Characters / Performances

Special Effects

How does it compare to similar films?

lillamarta

lillamarta

About me:

Formerly EFL teacher and IT consultant, now relocated to Marseille, France. Final year biochemistry ...

Member since:12.12.2007

Reviews:148

Members who trust:147

Classification: 18

Introduction

My boyfriend is an avid movie fan and manages to find great pieces of cinema often just by browsing in the dvd shops. He picked this title
up yesterday and we watched it last night. I wondered how come I had never heard of movie despite the publicity of the real events and one with such an outstanding perfomance.
Synopsis

It's indeed very hard not to spoil the plot if the movie is based on the story of 'America's first female serial killer' as Aileen Wuornos has been referred to in the media and also in The Guiness World Book of Records. Lee (as Aileen is called in the movie) is a prostitute who is on the verge of rapidly going down the gutter for good when she meets a young girl. She desperately grabs at her last chance of quitting and having a normal life she's never had.

Performance

Lee is played by Charlize Theron (The Italian Job, The Devil's Advocate, Hancock) who even had a body transformation to be able
to portray the battered look of Aileen to the point she's barely recognisable. Her acting is phenomenal, her facial expressions or rather contortions were the spitting image of a manic hooker and a nervous wreck rolled into one. She won the Oscar's Best Actress award for her perfomrance. Christina Ricca plays Lee's young partner called Selby in an equally convincing role, though not at all portrayed after the real person either physically or in character.
Viewing experience

Apart from the occasional tender moments between the two protagnists, the film is violent from start to finish. Non-stop swearing, confrontation and a sense of of constant danger characterise the atmosphere in which two desperate and lost souls trying to grab at their diminishing choices while only one is them is actually aware of it. There isn't much happening in terms of character or plot development, the events cascade rather rapidly and bring blow after blow to the hasty ending. It's certainly not for the faint hearted to watch, some of the more violent and graphic ones made me cringe with dismay. I did cry at the end, while the most emotionally charged moments of the movie were played out.

Conclusion

I do not feel that having prior knowledge of the plot would make watching the movie any less intense. The reason for that is the events are portrayed with a bias, namely from Aileen's point of view and not e.g from the victims' family or the press who obviously did their best to portray her as a monster. Fair enough, I do not condone her acts in the slightest. The film carries a lot stronger point than
that of her 'circumstances' that forced her to do what she did as Aileen referred to in a documentary made about her.
For me it is a violence makes violence and evil creates more evil. A disturbing, but powerful movie, recommended.
Price / where to buy

Amazon: Used from £0.55 or new (2 DVDs edition) for £19.99

DVD Features

Subtitles

This is a Format: Region 2 DVD and we watched it on my boyfriend's iMac so cannot comment on the quality of the Dolby sound that came with the DVD. However some of the conversations in the movie turned quite soft sometimes so we had turned on the English subtitles (the only subtitles available on our copy.) Funnily, the subtitles missed most of these conversations and had no subtitles on when there was clearly some talking going on. On other occasions, the subtitles had spelling mistakes in them or showed a different word altogether that sometimes did not even make sense in the context.

Extras

We had our copy as a single DVD format with no trailers and additional featurettes.

Thanks for reading.

İpowered by lillybee also posted on dooyoo

Summary: A powerful but disturbing movie based on a true story 

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Comments about this review »

Expired-Account 29.11.2008 14:25

This is one of my 'favourite' films, don't think that's quite the right word somehow

avacarrdo 10.11.2008 15:09

I had to turn this off after a while, just found it too hard to watch. But then again, I'm a complete wimp.

ilusvm 05.11.2008 21:17

i really liked this film! have watched it about 4 times!! charlize theron looks really like aileen in this! Em x

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Monster [2003] [DVD]

Monster [2003] [DVD]

Release Date: 2005-10-10, Rating Suitable for 18 years and over,

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