Theron deserves the oscar for role as 'Damsel of Death'

Friday, January 23, 2004

By Barbara Vancheri, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

A model in a 1980s television commercial implored, "Don't hate me because I'm beautiful."

	'Monster' Rating: R for strong violence and sexual content and pervasive language. Starring: Charlize Theron, Christina Ricci Director: Patty Jenkins

Actresses in today's Hollywood beg, "Don't think I cannot act -- really act -- because I'm beautiful. ... I'll wear contact lenses, false teeth, gain 30 pounds, turn my silken skin mottled and freckled with makeup, and weigh down my eyelids with gelatin so I look tired all the time."

And that, plus a surprisingly deep reserve of talent and grit, is how onetime model and ballerina Charlize Theron was able to disappear into the character of serial killer Aileen Wuornos in "Monster." Dubbed the "damsel of death," she was a highway prostitute who was executed in Florida in October 2002 for murdering six men. Most of them were expecting sexual favors but found themselves on the wrong end of a loaded gun and a torrent of rage, pain and disappointment.

In a world drowning in hyperbole, it really is a tour de force performance that could -- and should -- win Theron an Academy Award as best actress.

Her turn is better than the film, which suffers from a sort of tunnel vision at times as it presents a sympathetic portrait of a woman who once bought into such platitudes as, "All you need is love and to believe in yourself." That doesn't exactly get her very far when she arrives at a job interview without discernible skills. After all, working as a hooker since 13 doesn't exactly bring callbacks from the HR folks.

"Monster" opens with a fateful meeting in the late 1980s between Aileen and Selby Wall (Christina Ricci), a young woman sent by her Ohio parents to Florida to "cure her homosexuality." That doesn't stop her from frequenting a gay bar and buying a beer for the woman on a nearby stool named Aileen, who has the emotional shell of an armadillo.

Although Aileen initially tells Selby she's not interested, the two become a couple. When the penniless Aileen decides to earn a quick $30 for servicing a married man, her "john" gets drunk, punches her, ties her up, brutalizes her and threatens to kill her. She shoots him first, but the die is cast. When well-intentioned but misguided efforts to go straight fail, she resorts to prostitution, but the killing component is often now part of the picture, even when she stumbles upon a stranger who extends genuine kindness.

The end of this story is no surprise to anyone who follows the news, and director-writer Patty Jenkins takes us to the foregone conclusion. A shot of Theron standing in the dark in a cloud of cigarette smoke makes her look like a ghost, a foreshadowing of what's to come.

Jenkins based her screenplay on the letters Wuornos sent to a childhood friend from Death Row. Wuornos granted the filmmakers access to that correspondence, shaping the fictional portrait that has outlived her. This is the world according to Wuornos, and details about her adolescence are dropped in, but you're never sure if you're hearing fragments of fact or fiction.

The movie is somewhat maddening in that way -- did Wuornos, and then, Jenkins faithfully recount conversations with men who are now dead? -- but Theron does all the heavy lifting here.

Carrying an extra 30 pounds on her tall frame, she presents a threatening, almost masculine presence, especially when standing next to the petite Ricci with her kewpie doll face. Theron changed the way she lights a cigarette, tosses it outside a car window and walks, erasing any natural grace and brazenly blustering through a room with a posture that seems to announce she is itching for a fight. Ricci's Selby, meanwhile, may look innocent but she pushes Aileen to her downfall.

"Monster" has its share of sex, violence and R-rated language, so the faint of heart should beware. But if you can see beyond that and the sometimes low-budget ($5 million) look and feel, you will find an actress who doesn't trade on her looks but on her skill. Stripped of virtually everything but her talent, she turns in a beautiful performance.

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