Monster

I feel like a dork for not having watched Monster before watching North Country, I mean what the hell was I thinking!! Charlize Theron as Aileen Wurnos really freaked me out. Thank god I knew what the real Charlize Theron looked, otherwise I would have had a difficult time believing that it wasn’t the real Aileen Wurnos who was playing the lead. The movie is a biography of Aileen Wurnos, the first woman serial killer who was sentenced to death through lethal injection. Abandoned before birth by her father and then later by her mother, Aileen Wurnos became sexually active at the tender age of 13. She did not finish high school and later survived by prostituting. However after being viciously raped by one client, she poured all her hatred and aversion towards men by killing most of her later clients and then robbing them. Neglected by people most of her life and ignored because of her looks, she took a liking towards a young Selby Wall played by Cristina Ricci whom she meets at a gay bar, when Selby lets her sleep in her room and proclaims her to be beautiful. She becomes very protective of the young girl and both of them start living off Aileen’s prostitution earnings at a motel. Charlize Theron showed the world that she is here to stay and later becomes one of the highest paid actresses. She won the best actress Oscar and also the Golden Globe in 2003 for her portrayal of the unattractive, mentally ill Wurnos. For the role she put on 30 pounds and wore prosthetic teeth; her make up was a ‘complete transformation’. What Theron achieved wasn’t just a performance, it was an embodiment. Christina Ricci also received favourable reviews in her portrayal as Selby Wall. In her acceptance speech at the Oscars Theron hailed Ricci as the ‘unsung hero of the movie’. Theron’s uncanny resemblance with Wurnos did nauseate me at times, but that shouldnot stop you people from catching this Patty Jenkins creation.