Depressing, dark and dismal, Monster is the true story of Aileen, a prostitute turned serial killer.Charlize Theron is both stunning and disgusting as Aileen, such a beautiful actress in her other films, and in real life, however in Monster she's absolutely hideous as Aileen, the make up guys must have put a shift in to make her look this ugly. Fed up of hooking every night on the edge of the freeway, Aileen aims to turn her life around and soon meets the meek little girl, Selby, gradually the couple fall deeper in love, and both have to accept that there is indeed some lesbian in each of them, evidenced by the scenes depicting them kissing and fooling around, also they share a bed, and it is implied that they have also had sex. During this early period, Aileen attempts to secure herself a steady job , going to several interviews, but sadly, the lack of experience, and her previous life choices let her down each time and eventually she accepts that she is unemployable as a result. But the couple need money, so Aileen has no choice but to go back to the one thing she's always been good at, hooking. One night while at work, a man stops, picks her up, obviously wanting her services, but the man is brutal and vicious, beating poor Aileen to within an inch of her life, out of sheer desperation Aileen struggles free and kills the man in cold blood. A fatal mistake, and was this the end? Oh no, it was just the beginning! A light bulb went on in Aileen's head, from then on, instead of simply hooking, she would instead flag these nasty men down, take them somewhere secluded and kill them, then steal all their money, hey, it's far more profitable, plus she gets to kill nasty, violent men, what's not to like?One day she took it one step too far, by killing a cop, this proved to be Aileen's downfall and eventually she was caught, arrested and sentenced to death in court. Personally I enjoyed Monster it was just very difficult to watch, I was drawn in and became quite sympathetic to Aileen, but my heart went out to Selby even more so, a simple, frightened girl who is pretty much brainwashed into being Aileen's sidekick and partner, should've stayed at home Selby, carved out a better, legal life for yourself, and I continued saying this every time the character was on the screen.Charlize Theron won the academy award for best actress for Monster, a rightful choice, she was absolutely superb as Aileen, just as I said earlier, unattractive and rather disgusting. She was the first female serial killer in America, and her story is well told, my only snag is the runtime and the fact it could have broke the 2 hour mark rather than being a little over an hour and 40 minutes.

(Originally review: 09/03/2017) Charlize Theron is absolutely brilliant, however I found the film simply just good. This is a picture that's not easy to watch at times, there's a lot of unpleasantness but at least there's a point and the story is told quite well for the most part. Patty Jenkins's direction is swift and most impressive, much like Theron's performance as serial killer Aileen Wuornos, within the role you can see Theron disappearing into character and never fading out, the character is of course unlikeable but there are scenes where I could sit back and watch with ease, these include romantic exchanges between Theron and Christina Ricci who play's her lover Selby and the film really glides when these two are on screen together. The picture is well shot, purposely grim, and boasts a watchable supporting cast, that includes Bruce Dern (Thomas) and Annie Corley (Donna/Selby's stepmother). There's a lot of sexual nature and there anything but enjoyable because it constantly ends uncomfortable or in bloodshed. Some of the dialogue isn't too good, and I felt the picture became morally nasty in the second half, but I was at least aware not to let my emotions get the better of me, and concede that this is at the very least a well-crafted, good piece of filmmaking that may not be great script wise but most definitely keeps itself interesting and is competently directed and contains two strong performances from Theron and Ricci.

Based on the life of Aileen Wuornos, a Daytona Beach prostitute who became a serial killer. Monster is based upon true events and the life of Aileen Wuornos a prostitute played by Charlize Theron who basically became a serial killer and started killing her clients she also had a lover going by the name Selby played by Christina Ricci and i have to give credit to Theron she gave an amazing performance and Ricci was also great and i don't have a problem that the film had a lot of sex scenes between the 2 girls or even with her clients i just found the story lacking on that thing and for years i heard that the film was amazing but i only found it good not great just good they needed to reach more on the story of her being insane and cut out some of those love scenes but anyways the director of next year's Wonder Woman starring Gal Gadot did a pretty good job with both ladies 7/10.

When you see Aileen Wuornos and hear that she is a Daytona Beach prostitute and serial killer, you would probably expect her to be absolutely out of her mind. And you'd be right, to some extent, but you wouldn't expect that she had big dreams at one point in life, and all she really wanted to do was have one person to love. In fact when she seemed to almost accidentally stumble into becoming a prostitute at a young age, when she dreamed of becoming rich and famous, and expected to just stumble into fame as well. Soon enough she had become a full blown hooker, and she seemed to do the same when she became a serial killer. And Charlize Theron seems to completely inhabit this human being with a damaged soul. She not only physically transformed herself, but mentally as well. She is not the beautiful Charlize Theron that we've seen before. All of the performances in the film are fantastic, but Charlize Theron completely becomes this new person and there's almost no other performance in film that matches her's in this oneSo Aileen's downfall started out when she was trying to get money to share with her new girlfriend, Selby Wall. She was "hooking" and happened to get into the wrong man's car. She got into the car of a sadistic psychopath, and he rapes her and tortures her, and definitely would've killed her if she didn't kill him first. She hides this from Selby, because she knows Selby is like the old Aileen. Selby believes people are good and Aileen doesn't want to take that away from her. She tries to quit hooking, but discovers she has dug herself too deep into a hole she can't get out of. After being raped and almost murdered, then being rejected by every job because of her lack of credentials, she begins to lose hope in herself. She finally confesses that she murdered the man to Selby, and decides to go back to hooking. But, when she gets in the car with the next man, she seems more nervous, more paranoid. The editing becomes closer and quicker, with intense music in the background, just like it did when she killed the first man. Suddenly she kills the man. She is then at home with Selby, and this is when the guilt begins to eat away at her, but it got them money, and the money gave them happiness, so she continues to kill. We see that she first needs to convince herself that the person is bad in order to kill him, and if she can't do that, she can't kill him. But she begins to kill nicer people, one of them a man that she thinks is out to get her because he has a gun, when it is only revealed that he is a cop. Next she gets in the car of a man that is a genuinely nice person with a family, who doesn't want to hook up with her, yet when he sees her pistol, she feels that she has to kill him, even though she doesn't want to. This is the most painful scene in the movie. From there it is all downhill for Aileen and Selby, and it all culminates to one heartbreaking phone call between Selby and Aileen, when it pans over to show cops in the same room listening to Selby, revealing that Selby is turning her in by getting a confession from her.Was she a bad person? Yes. But she was also genuinely scarred and damaged from a horrible childhood. We learn she was kicked out of her house, beat by her dad, and raped at the age of 8, among other things, yet for a long while she truly believed in herself and that things would get better. The truth is, in the end, all she really wanted was to be with the one person she ever seemed truly loved in the world. This is a hopeless, cynical film, about a similarly hopeless and cynical one, but it is a fantastic and devastating film as well.