Rating: R
Genre:
Drama
Theatrical Release: 12/26/2001(USA
Release Date: 11/04/2008
SubTitles: English/Espanol
Dubbed: English
Sound: DTS-ESM
Run Time: 113 Minutes
Flags: Violence, Nudity, Adult Situations, Strong Sexual Content, Not For Children, Profanity
Distributor/Studio: Lionsgate
Director
Marc Forster, winner of Best Feature at Slamdance for his debut film
Loungers (1996) and the "Someone to Watch" Independent Spirit Award for his indie
drama Everything Put Together (2000), follows up those acclaimed projects with this intense, racially charged
romance.
Billy Bob Thornton stars as Georgia prison guard
Hank Grotowski, a hard-drinking racist ex-cop whose father,
Buck (
Peter Boyle), is dying of emphysema and whose son,
Sonny (
Heath Ledger), works the execution detail at the prison's death row. When
Sonny commits suicide,
Hank is devastated and quits his job, spiraling into a deep depression until, one night, he comes to the aid of
Leticia (
Halle Berry), a beautiful African-American woman whose son,
Tyrell (
Coronji Calhoun), has been hit by a car. When
Tyrell dies,
Leticia and
Hank find themselves to be unexpected soul mates linked together by tragic grief. It's not long before
Hank discovers that
Leticia is the widow of
Lawrence Musgrove (
Sean Combs), the man whose execution by electric chair he and his late son helped to orchestrate.
Monster's Ball (2001) is based on a screenplay by actors
Milo Addica and
Will Rokos, who spent five years developing their script into a feature. Their title refers to the name of an English tradition requiring jailers to throw a party for a condemned man on the night before his death.
~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
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