merelyaninnuendo The MonsterEven though there are plenty of biographies that are acclaimed and created with passion and enthusiasm, very few of them depicts the accurate mirror on screen and not spend the time on justifying the events or the characters revolving around it and this is where it stands alone, which is in its smarter approach and newer perspective. The adaptation is witty, to-the-point and effective as it is free from the boundaries that usually restraints the track. Petty Jenkins; the writer-director, executes her anticipated vision which is brighter and sometimes funnier too contradict to its premise. Charlize Theron is the heart of the feature that keeps it pumping faster and harder than ever and is supported decently by Christina Ricci. It is short on technical aspects like sound department and camera work; it could have been shot more wisely and subtly, but is edited perfectly. The only crisis in it is the chemistry among the lead characters; despite of stellar performances, comes off a bit shallow. The Monster is the inner voice of an enraging beauty and the seductive beasts that neither befalls on a definite lap nor keeps the raised questions hanging in the air.

garthlotel Was blown away by Charlize in this movie, she is a truly magnificently talented actress who makes you forget there is a beautiful and glamorous South African model under there. You really believe she IS Wuornos and it's unbelievably good. The movie itself is also gripping and heart wrenching . Deserves all the praise that has been heaped upon it. If you can handle the violence and the tragic storyline, please do not miss this.

Thomas Drufke One of the hardest things to do is made a typically unsympathetic character sympathetic. Monster deals with a famous serial killer from the early 1990's who believed she was killing for good reasons. Finding a way to write a direct such a character so that the audience doesn't automatically despise your lead is a difficult thing to do. Patty Jenkins and Charlize Theron found a way to do just that with Aileen Wuornos. The story deals with Aileen, who has had a rough life to say the least. She's been a prostitute since an early teen, physically abused by her family, and has been homeless for years ever since being kicked out of her home. Just by hearing that, there's at least some sense of pity I feel for her. This all leads to her meeting Selby Wall (based on Tyria Moore). The film portrays both of them at a rough patch in their life, which makes it all the more timely that they meet each other. After a relatively sweet romance for the first 40 minutes of the film, Aileen begins her crime spree. We may never know exactly how it all went down, but if she originally killed first victim because he was raping her and likely going to murder her, then I can feel a lot of sympathy towards her. As I said, Jenkins makes a choice to present Aileen as a victim herself, but that changes about halfway through. But I really appreciate the balance Jenkins gives to the crimes. They aren't faceless crimes without purpose, she's doing them for love and because her life is close to worthless without the money she's getting. By no means does that dismiss her from having any guilt, as no one should be murdered, but you can begin to understand her mindset just a little bit. It doesn't hurt that you have a great actress like Charlize Theron to build your film around, as she earned an Oscar for her turn as Aileen. It was well deserved I may add. Overall, Monster is a fascinating movie to get inside of a murderous psychopath, but it's more the moments of humanity in Aileen that stand out the most.7.4/10

TonyMontana96 (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.