I just finished watching Monster, the story of Aileen Wuornos, portrayed by Charlize Theron, who won the BEST ACTRESS Oscar for this role. This is a painful movie to watch and I have to confess that I was unable to watch one of the murder scenes (the last one). Some people criticized the movie for a sympathetic handling of the Wuornos character. I don’t think that’s particularly fair. Wuornos can be dismissed as a stone-cold psychopath. I suppose she COULD be romanticized as an entirely sympathetic character, but the truth is a very complicated mixture of aspects of these. What I think is true, or at least awfully hard to dispute, is that Charlize Theron’s performance is uncanny. I try to avoid hyperbole (sometimes unsuccessfully), but if there’s ever been a better performance on film I’d like to know what it is. Or, I guess a better way of putting it, if this performance could have been better, I’d like to know how. Her portrayal of Wuornos somehow manages to be terrifying, repugnant, and heartbreakingly sad all the same movie and sometimes in the same moments.
I don’t watch movies, but I saw a preview for Charlize once in this. I’ve read a lot about the serial killer she portrayed, and I think she really does fit that role perfectly. What’s more, when you listen to her and consider that she is not a native English speaker and that she isn’t even an American by birth (she’s African), you gain more appreciation for her.
Theron has become a truly fine actress. And, for someone so beautiful, she sure lets them make her ugly. Not a lot of actresses would let them do that.
This was a fine performance and it must have been a really tough movie to make.
I saw a documentary which had a lot of 1 on 1 interview material with AW herself. I think Ms Theron did a brilliant job interpreting the character of a very disturbed woman - a woman who it is surely impossible to understand fully.
I think a lot of people at the top in acting
are fabulously talented, but one seldom gets to really
see it because they are cast in commercial vanilla
roles. Also a lot of people who play supporting parts
are extraordinarily good, but one feature of being
good in support is focusing attention on the
lead–so, again, you don’t see how good they
really are.
When my son and I went to see Serenity, one of the previews was for Aeon Flux, which stars Theron.
If you’re one of those odd people who doesn’t watch cartoons on MTV, you can see some background and the movie trailer at http://www.aeonflux.com/, and a bit about the cartoon at http://www.sadgeezer.com/html/Sections+index-req-viewarticle-artid-40-page-1.html.