Monster - Aileen Wuornos

A psychologically sophisticated profile of a killer who is herself the biggest victim. But beware: it’s all wrapped up in a bitter taste, vileness and negative emotions that will be a challenge for your tolerance of anything to overcome. Christina Ricci is just as brilliant as Charlize Theron. (07.07.2004)

Charlize Theron's perfect physical and mental transformation, backed by her willingness to let herself get ugly for the role and the great work of the make-up artists. The words of the renowned Roger Ebert fit best: hers it is no longer an acting performance, but pure incarnation. The change in voice, the waddling gait, the pronounced overbite, the body encased in layers of fat (particularly noticeable in one scene), the manner of expression. It's not Theron anymore, but Wuornos, a lesbian murderer and prostitute, disgusted with her messed up life and full of emotion and love for her young partner in a rather depressing and at times very impressive film. During the tense murder scenes, Jenkins knows how to thicken the atmosphere; the brutal rape scene and the first murder will never go out of my mind, nor will the tragicomic moment with the hand-job. But mostly, I wanted to watch Monster as a movie starring Charlize Theron, But I couldn’t find her. That woman will never give me a chance :) (02.02.2004)

A story about the “birth" of a human monster. It’s trying relatively successfully to show all viewpoints here, so although it shows the “bad things" that have been done to Aileen, it doesn’t defend her particularly, and doesn’t blame all her problems on society. At the same time, it attempts to reveal her human face and to show that she was capable of love. This picture gained widespread public awareness not so much for the topic and its doubtless qualities, but for the great performance by an almost unrecognizable Charlize Theron. Which is unfair to Christina Ricci who did an excellent job in the supporting role. (26.02.2005)

In the professional life of every actor, three phases can occur. In the first one, the actor simply wants to make a living. In the second, they want to stand out and increase their value. If they succeed, the third phase follows, where they strive to prove that they are not just a star of one TV role or representative of one type of actor. In other words, in this phase, it's about professional prestige and recognition, which has nothing to do with the cheap popularity of celebrities and B-movie stars. Such an actor is willing to even act for free, and will even engage in the production. So it happened that one of the highest-paid stars of contemporary cinema wanted to escape the cage of roles based on physical attractiveness and prove that she could play practically anything she was given. She chose the role of a worn-out rough prostitute, and it must be said that the transformation is (even in the context of roles she played a decade later) fascinating in its own way. Charlize did not limit herself to physical transformation but thoroughly studied masculine behavior to the extent that you doubt her sexual identity and at least have the feeling that she must have trained long-term on the Czech-German border while satisfying the desires of truck drivers and previously went through some brothels and prison. On the other hand, as a psychological study of an extreme human character, the film fails because its main character is not an interesting and multi-layered personality. The direction is unremarkable, the screenplay too straightforward, and except for the main character and the increasing number of corpses around her, it has nothing to offer. All in all, it's a 3-and-a-half-star movie, and since this is a highly-rated film, I am giving it a lower rating as usual. Overall impression: 65%. (23.04.2013)

This film will move some, amaze some, shock some, but it certainly won't leave anyone cold. (17.02.2005)

A pretty great ACTORS’ affair. Charlize Theron’s superb performance (but please, make-up artists, don't ever do that to her again!) elevates the film itself to above average, plus an equally good Christina Ricci and a very professional direction, which, although it falls into routine at times, delivers a few original and emotionally charged moments. I'm one of those who naturally abhor prostitution, but after this experience I have to admit that sometimes these girls don't have any other choice. Unfortunately, though, my aversion will always remain, especially after what the main character does here... 85% (03.07.2013)

The assassins seem to play very well. When you look at the Oscars battles, it is not unusual for the winner to be an actor who played a negative character. Several come to mind right away. First of all, definitely Anthony Hopkins and his Hannibal Lecter. Even Denzel Washington in "Training Day" was not exactly a saint. Aileen, portrayed by Charlize Theron based on real events, is certainly not a saint either. Let's face it, Charlize is incredibly beautiful, which took the critics' breath away even more when they saw what she had become for the movie "Monster". I won't exaggerate when I say that she truly became a monster. This definitely is not a woman you could fall in love with. Aileen probably won't be one of those who will physically attract you. She is not a beautiful woman at first sight. Certainly, she will not attract you at second sight either, when you find out what she actually is and that she already has a few murders behind her. And all of them basically stem from the fact that guys and men treated her only as a piece of meat and not as a real person. They turned her into a whore and treated her accordingly. All she wanted was love, at the beginning. Then she only sought men for money. A guy will pay for some service. First with money, then with his life. Aileen Wuornos is a real character who committed seven murders and was sentenced to death, which was carried out in 2002. I don't know if she regretted her actions, I don't think so. Still, I wondered if the fault was only on her side. And so I started to think about how society actually took care to prevent something like that from happening to her. In fact, it didn't take care at all. Essentially, everyone who encountered her helped her sink deeper and deeper into a state that eventually led to her murders. Greedy men who didn't get enough at home, police officers abusing their positions, people who saw her as trash. It is then easy to impose punishment on one person, the others are off the hook, she pulled the trigger. I won't defend her, she really did murder, but on the other hand, it is worth reflecting on how we treat people and whether we ourselves are catalysts for such behavior. More: http://www.filmovy-denik.cz/2012/10/ztraceno-v-prekladu-4-bratri-na-dotek.html (01.03.2013)