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The ravages of a hard life, unflinchingly retold in 'Monster'

By Moira Macdonald
Seattle Times movie critic

	AP The usually glamorous Charlize Theron is nearly invisible in the role of serial killer Aileen Wuornos in the chilling "Monster."
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She's so invisible in the role that it's almost a distraction — you watch the first scenes of the movie extra-carefully, looking for a trace of Theron's glamour in Lee's bleary eyes. It's a performance that at times approaches caricature — Theron's Lee has a tendency to puff out her lips, pull back her head and strut like a rooster, which sometimes looks like bravado and sometimes just looks like overcompensating. (Perhaps this is an imitation of the real Wuornos, but it's the only slightly false note in an otherwise passionate and honest portrayal.)

Lee is always performing, always trying to put her best face forward; it's not so much that she wants approval from others but that she wants to validate her own shaky opinion of herself. In an early scene, she cleans up in a gas-station bathroom, stripping to her grubby underwear and scrubbing at herself with brown paper towels. After finishing, she carefully smooths her lank hair in the mirror. "I look good, yeah," she says, and almost means it.

Movie review Showtimes and trailer ***½ "Monster," with Charlize Theron, Christina Ricci, Bruce Dern, Scott Wilson, Pruitt Taylor Vince. Written and directed by Patty Jenkins. 111 minutes. Rated R for strong violence and sexual content, and for pervasive language. Metro and Meridian 16.

But Jenkins' film isn't about self-esteem; it's instead about how a woman could go from low-rent prostitute to serial murderer, particularly at a time when she's finally found love. Selby Wall (a composite character based on several real-life figures in Wuornos' life) is a young lesbian seeking companionship when the two first meet in a bar. Played by Christina Ricci, she's all youthful eagerness, dazzled by this tough-talking woman and young enough to romanticize prostitution. (Maybe she's seen "Pretty Woman.")

Soon the two are living together in a series of cheap motel rooms and rentals, with Lee hooking to support them (after a failed, pathetic attempt to find a regular job) and Selby's saucer eyes becoming ever-wider. "I thought you didn't like girls," Selby tells Lee, early on. "I don't like anyone, really," is the reply.

It's not exactly a love story, but it's close enough for Lee — until the night she is brutally raped by a john and kills him in self-defense. This ignites a fury simmering within her, and her subsequent killing spree is shown as a progression — the men she kills become less monstrous (her final victim, played by Scott Wilson, is the picture of kindness) as she becomes more so. Nothing is glamorized here or eroticized, as last year's horrific "Dahmer" film did; her crimes are somewhat explained but not excused.

As there were no witnesses to Wuornos' real-life crimes, it's difficult to know how close "Monster" comes to the truth. (Perhaps the upcoming documentary "Aileen: Life and Death of a Serial Killer," due in theaters later this winter, may shed more light.) But as drama, Jenkins' haunting film is reminiscent of Kimberly Peirce's "Boys Don't Cry," which also featured a crime retold, an actress memorably transforming herself, and a hopeless milieu of cheap rooms, unwelcoming streets and aimless, threadbare lives. Though it's Florida, everyone looks cold in "Monster"; in Lee's case, the chill seems to come from her soul.

Moira Macdonald: 206-464-2725or mmacdonald@seattletimes.com

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