Rating: R
Genre:
Drama
Theatrical Release: 12/24/2003(USA
Release Date: 01/25/2005
SubTitles: French/Espanol
Dubbed: English/French/Espanol
Sound: DD5.1/DTS/DD2/DDS
Run Time: 109 Minutes
Flags: Graphic Violence, Brief Nudity, Strong Sexual Content, Rape & Sexual Abuse, Not For Children, Profanity
Distributor/Studio: Columbia TriStar
Model-turned-actress
Charlize Theron leaves her glamorous image behind for this gritty
drama, in which she plays a disturbed prostitute who becomes a serial killer.
Aileen Wuornos (
Theron) was a woman who survived a brutal and abusive childhood in Michigan to become a thick-skinned but emotionally damaged adult. Homeless most of her life,
Wuornos subsisted by working as a street prostitute; later, when she was in Florida, down to her last five dollars and pondering suicide, she stopped into a bar for a beer. There,
Aileen met
Selby Wall (
Christina Ricci), a woman in her early twenties who had been sent to live with relatives after her Christian parents became aware of her lesbian lifestyle.
Selby is immediately attracted to
Aileen, and while
Aileen tells
Selby she's never been in a lesbian relationship, she soon finds herself equally infatuated with her.
Selby runs away from her family and moves into a cheap hotel with
Aileen, who initially pays the bills by hooking. However, as their money runs low and
Aileen finds herself unable to land a regular job, tensions mount between the two. One night, after a john attacks her,
Aileen pulls a gun and kills the man. Although her first murder can be categorized as self-defense,
Aileen's loathing for the men who pay her for sex becomes so extreme that she begins killing her customers regardless of their behavior. Meanwhile,
Selby slowly becomes aware of the full extent of her lover's instability and the bloody consequences of her actions.
Monster was inspired by the true story of
Aileen Wuornos, whose life and death was chronicled in two
documentaries by filmmaker
Nick Broomfield,
Aileen Wuornos: The Selling of a Serial Killer, and
Aileen: The Life and Death of a Serial Killer.
~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
;)
