Capital punishment, racism and abusive parents feature strongly in this story about the healing power of love and its great ability to grow in even the most unlikely circumstances. The mood is often sombre and the characters' feelings of despair, grief and regret are profound. Despite all of this, the hope and comfort that unexpected love can bring is ultimately shown as being able to point the way to hope and optimism for the future. In the wrong hands, a story like this could easily have developed into a melodramatic slush-fest but fortunately in this case, the movie was directed more intelligently with uncompromising depictions of its characters and the romantic developments being presented without sentimentality.Hank Grotowski (Billy Bob Thornton) is a Georgia prison Corrections Officer who's responsible for supervising the arrangements leading up to the execution of convicted cop-killer Lawrence Musgrove (Sean Combs). Hank's team includes his son, Sonny (Heath Ledger) and on the day of the execution, when the prisoner is being led to the electric chair, Sonny becomes overwhelmed by what's happening, starts vomiting and has to break off from the detail to recover. After the execution has been carried out, Hank violently attacks his son in front of the other men in his team and then when they return home, a second attack concludes with Sonny killing himself. Hank had always hated his son for being weak and after his suicide, swiftly buries him and then resigns from his job.Hank lives with his white racist father, Buck (Peter Boyle) who's a retired Corrections Officer and a wheelchair-bound invalid. His wife had committed suicide some years earlier.Leticia Musgrove (Halle Berry) had worked hard to bring up her son Tyrell (Coronji Calhoun) during the eleven years that her husband Lawrence had been on death row awaiting the outcomes of various appeals but now, after his execution, had arrived at a real low-point facing the prospect of losing her car, her job and her house. Tyrell had inherited his father's talent for drawing but gets beaten and verbally abused by his mother because she's disgusted by his obesity. One night, Hank is driving along a stretch of road when he sees Leticia screaming for help and after discovering that Tyrell had been injured by a hit-and-run driver, takes the boy and his mother to the nearest hospital. A short time later, Tyrell dies and afterwards, Hank drives Leticia home not realising that this would lead to a relationship that would bring them both a great deal of comfort and start to make them feel human again."Monster's Ball" doesn't pull any punches in showing the pain that people in dysfunctional families can suffer or the damaging effects that a bigoted, bullying, patriarch can have on the lives of his offspring. Hank's experience of being brought up by Buck had naturally led to him becoming a racist and regarding anyone who's sensitive as being weak. The potential for this kind of attitude to continually be passed from father to son is extremely powerful and damaging and so, it's particularly ironic that in Hank's case, after suffering a dreadful tragedy in his life, he should find comfort in a relationship with a black woman whose life had also been blighted by tragedy.When Hank and Leticia meet for the first time, they don't know that they're connected by Lawrence's execution and the ways in which they both discover this information at different times and reconcile themselves to the situation, is both very powerful and brilliantly acted."Monster's Ball" is full of good performances with Peter Boyle and Heath Ledger standing out in their supporting roles. The casting of Billy Bob Thornton and Halle Berry in the leading roles is also perfect as they both make their characters believable as individuals as well as showing, in a very natural way, how well they get to appreciate each other's company. This movie is strong on simplicity and realism and it's these qualities that contribute so much to its incredible power and poignancy.

this was a wonderful heart filled movie very realistic and deals with real life and racism especially for the south. billy bob, Halle Berry Dark melodrama about the strange intersection of racism and emotional need. billy turns from a racist redneck, scaring his son's black friends off his property with a gun to getting a black girl and loving one and (Halle Berry's 10-minute soft(not so soft teehee) porn scene for "art's sake") The acting in "Monster's Ball" isn't really acting. It transcends that definition. The characters seem real, and their situations seem real. As for the infamous, gratuitous sex scene - yes, it was a little unnecessary. But overall, this film is great one last note the south needs to wake up like Billy's character we are all the same its rich vs poor not black vs white :)jesus was killed for being black lets stop the hate and learn the truth. AMEN - ヅ ツ ッ シ *and to the people that rate it under 4 stars they just morons and don't understand it and the meaning of the lovely story wounder why they watch WWE and think its real and there in there 30-50s lmao if u over 15 and watch that yea prob don't have common sense nor a sex life booyah ya just got owned * :O

Iv just finished watching this film and it left me SO disappointed as I had really high expectations.First off Halle Berry is brilliant in the movie and you really buy into her character and her emotions and heart-break, she's effortless in what appears to be her comfort zone. Billy Bob Thornton is brilliant in the movie also, I've not seen him in a lot of movies but based on this I have become a fan, he's very convincing and again effortless. My problem with this movie is that it failed to be compelling and the story seemed rushed. The movie is very dreary and depressing, it plods along, the story lacks any real depth, there's no outstanding part in the film that makes you sit up and take notice. They infamous sex scene made the film no better and felt un-justified especially the long length of time it was on, a talented actress like Halle Berry lowering herself to do something like that made me cringe in all honesty. They could have made it shorter or cut away after they started they initial moves. The oral sex scene again felt totally un-necessary and just took away from the drama and emotion in the film.I found myself relieved when it ended after a very weak ending that left me wondering why I wasted my time watching the movie, damn high expectations! Did Halle deserve an Oscar, I personally don't think so, she was very good but not outstanding she was in her comfort zone and didn't really push herself to an Oscar worthy performance. She played the role by numbers nothing more, nothing less a thousand other actresses could have played the part, it wasn't a stretch for her in anyway in my opinion.

I thought this movie was incredible. Anyone going through a difficult time in their life can relate to this movie. One part of this movie touched me to the core, and I literally sobbed hysterically for half an hour during the movie. The acting in this movie is so raw, and powerful and just so true to real life. You actually will leave watching this movie with a sense of culture you didn't have before. Though not perfect the movie soars past any flaws, and truly rises above any movie I've seen in a while. Profound movie well worth watching again. Though definitely not for children, I think it's a movie i would want my kids to see when they get older. An amazing movie for sure, I truly loved this incredible piece of work with amazing actors.