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Review

In a performance that is nothing short of a revelation, Theron is stunning as real-life serial killer Aileen Wuornos, a prostitute who murdered several of her johns along the cold, deserted roads intersecting the Florida interstate. In her feature film debut, director Jenkins has created an unforgettable portrait of this woman, framed in an impressive tableau of desire, oppression and violence. A victim of sexual abuse as a child and forced into prostitution at age 13, Wuornos is an embittered, hard-edged, suicidal adult who bounces from one bad relationship to another. When she meets young lesbian Selby (Ricci in an uncharacteristically awkward performance), and though not gay, Wuornos responds to the woman's kindness and compassion -- the two beginning a tentative relationship with Aileen taking the traditional "husband" role in looking after her girlfriend. Finding roadblocks at every turn for employment because of her past, Aileen turns to the only work she knows. But when a trick turns violent, she kills him in self-defense, setting in motion an almost cathartic series of murders. There are times one feels genuine pity for Wuornos, thanks to Jenkins' anguished storytelling and Theron's bravura portrayal, but neither lets the viewer forget that this is foremost a tale of a killer. Jenkins downplays the inherent sociopolitical aspect of a story of a woman raging against men, and finds at its core a bittersweet love story of two lonely misfits. At times difficult and not always fluid as it should be, Monster is also mesmerizing, a bold and hypnotic film that thankfully suggests in this tragic case there was no black or white. Theron won an much-deserved Oscar as Best Actress.

 -- David Bleiler