'MONSTER' | A review Sharp performance in film that lacks focus

Charlize Theron gets deep inside the personality of the serial killer.
By MILAN PAURICH
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
An obvious labor of love for producer-star Charlize Theron and first-time writer-director Patty Jenkins, "Monster" is a striking, if only partially realized docudrama about Aileen Wuornos, the first female serial killer who was executed in 2002 after spending 12 years on death row.
Although Wuornos -- the subject of two nonfiction films by British documentarian Nick Broomfield -- remains a fascinating clinical case study, I'm not certain whether her sad, ugly tale needed to be rehashed one more time. And, in a season of such artful downers as "House of Sand and Fog," "21 Grams," and "Mystic River," "Monster" just might be the bleakest, most uncompromising feel-bad movie of them all.
Closer to a high-end TV movie along the lines of Kimberly Pierce's "Boys Don't Cry" than to a truly visionary work like Terrence Malick's "Badlands," "Monster" has a boxy look that wouldn't be out of place on the small screen. Probably as a cover for the penny-pinching budget, cinematographer Steven Bernstein works mostly in medium shots and close-ups. What Bernstein gains in intimacy, he loses in scope: we never get a real sense of the 1980s period in which Wuornos' story is set.
Outstanding performance
Fortunately, Jenkins has an ace in the hole with Theron, whose fierce commitment to the role goes well beyond any cosmetic makeover. A consistently underrated performer whose beauty has worked against her being taken seriously as an actress, Theron burrows so deep inside Wuornos that it's almost pathological. Her performance is as much of a revelation as the ones given by Jessica Lange in "Frances" and Halle Berry in "Monster's Ball" -- two other formidable talents dismissed as lightweights early in their careers because of cover-girl looks.
Yes, Theron's entire face and body have been completely transformed, which is a tribute to the makeup artistry of Toni G. But Theron really taps into something spookily uncanny here -- Wuornos' soul, perhaps? -- that has nothing to do with Hollywood prosthetics. Through a combination of dogged intensity and old-fashioned Method acting, Theron actually transforms herself into this beaten-down prostitute who murdered seven men on a lonely stretch of Florida's Interstate 75.
Jenkins doesn't sentimentalize Wuornos or turn her into some sort of feminist anti-heroine like certain fringe groups have tried to do because of her abusive past. She simply serves up a lucid, blow-by-blow account of one damaged woman's truly ugly life. Thanks to the script's admirable clarity, and Theron's splendid work, it's easy to forgive the movie's shortcomings.
Other characters
As Selby Wall, Wuornos' lover, Christina Ricci's noncommittal performance does nothing to clarify the character's inconsistencies. At first, Selby comes across as a naive lost soul who simply found a kindred wounded spirit in Wuornos. By the time Selby is browbeating her supposed soul mate into turning more tricks to help support them, you're not so sure anymore. The fact that Selby eventually turned state's evidence against Wuornos only makes her harder to read.
Ironically, it's the men who make fleeting appearances in Wuornos' life that leave some of the film's most vivid impressions. Scott Wilson (who played Dick Hickock in "In Cold Blood" 36 years ago) is quietly heartbreaking as Wuornos' final victim, a decent man who just happened to make the fatal mistake of picking up the wrong hitchhiker. Equally strong is Bruce Dern as the shell-shocked Vietnam vet who was Wuornos' only male friend.
Fuzzy focus
"Monster"'s most crucial flaw is the absence of a point of view. Broomfield's films looked at the cottage industry that grew up around Wuornos' imprisonment and eventual execution with a cynical eye; you got the sense that he was both amused and horrified at the cult of celebrity surrounding his notorious subject.
I'm not certain whether Jenkins even knows what to make of her protagonist. Although that's perfectly understandable considering the circumstances, it's damaging for an artist who's chosen to make her the centerpiece of a film. Only through Theron's mercurial performance -- stark, resolutely unglamorous and brutally unflinching -- does something approximating humanity finally emerge from within Wuornos' ravaged shell.
XWrite Milan Paurich at milanpaurich@aol.com.