MONSTER....growwwl..This movie is in my head for some time now. Almost a fortnight since I saw it, but it refuses to budge !!
A brilliant transformation of the singularly beautiful (if somehow bland) Charlize Theron into a truly hideous creature...
CT worked very hard in gaining that extra 50 pounds for the meaty role. She ate potato chips day and night...
The lithe actress has already lost the pounds, but she's gaining bucket loads of acclaim: she's been been awarded Best Actress by the Golden Globes and the coveted Oscar.
The trick of becoming unattractive and downright pathetic in exchang for awards and acclaim has worked before. Nicole Kidman was rewarded for her marvelous performance in "The Hours" – or was it the prothetic nose that dimmed her movie star looks? The most famous example is Halle Berry who won an Oscar for her performances as a dejected single mother in "Monster's Ball." Like Charlize Theron, she wept frequently throughout the film.

The film is based on Aileen Wuornos, the prostitute who was executed last year in Florida after confessing to six murders.

I after watching the movie went into a shell wondering on how different people are. But no matter how hideous, cruel, ugly people turn out to be..from the inside each and every person is GOOD. CT was a good person, but as she herself says in the movie, circumstanceshad made her the person she was.

"Monster" tells a sordid, unappealing story, ripped from the headlines. CT (Wuornos) is forced to despise her livelihood, i.e prostitution because of rape attempts by several of her customers. Finally she cant take it any more and goes on a shooting spree !! The filmmaking is straightforward: the story starts off not long before the first murder and progresses through a series of dead men in parked cars until Wuornos' apprehension and conviction. Pity is what one feels for the woman. She tries her best to leave her past behind and take up a clean job, but she is forced right back into it. Her search for love forces her to befriend christina ricci whom she meets in a gay bar. As Wuornos' young lover Shelby, Ricci is heartbreakingly sweet, simple, and selfish, wrapped into a blue-jeaned tiny package with a bulky cast on her right arm. The early scenes of the film, when Ricci and Theron meet and fall in love, are the very best. However, while Selby is not as hateful as her serial murderer lover, she is not such a great girl herself.They stay together till the truth comes right in the open.
Charlize, one of my favorite actresses, really does look awfully bad in this movie, and it seems that her gamble has paid off. Maybe she is going to follow in Berry's footsteps: take home her Oscar, add millions to her future paychecks, and take off her clothes for the next James Bond flick !! :)................sign off