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Monster - Charlize Theron, Christina Ricci, Patty Jenkins, Aileen "Lee" Wuaronos

Threat advisory: Severe - Severe risk of entertaining activities

Movie propaganda

In a revelatory performance, Charlize Theron stars in the shocking and moving true-life story of Aileen Wuaronos, a prostitute executed last year in Florida after being convicted of murdering six men. While Wuaronos confessed to the six murders, including a policeman, she claimed to have killed only in self-defence, resisting violent assaults while working as a prostitute.

Bravely burrowing beneath the tabloid headlines about America's first female serial killer - and the media's sordid designation of Wuaronos as an unrepentant monster - in the midst of the horrors and pathologies, first-time writer-director Patty Jenkins unearths an unlikely love story between two misfits.

Nearing suicidal despair, Wuaronos wanders into a Florida bar, where she meets Selby Wall (Christina Ricci), a young woman sent by her parents to live with an aunt in order to "cure her homosexuality". Wuaronos - victim of a tragic, abusive upbringing - quickly falls in love, and clings to Selby like a life preserver. Unable to find a legitimate job but desperate to sustain her relationship with Selby, Wuaronos continues working as a prostitute. When one of her johns turns violent, Wuaronos shoots the man in self-defence; the first in her tragic string of killings.

Shot in many of the actual locations where Wuaronos committed her crimes between 1989-90, in its grittiness, verisimilitude, and hard-won empathy for its anti-hero, Monster is reminiscent of the great, iconoclastic American films of the 60s and 70s. Co-starring Bruce Dern, Monster succeeds as searing social commentary, road movie, and, most profoundly, as love story. Theron's ferocious, fully-committed work - astounding physical transformation matched by unerring psychological acuity - is sure to surprise audiences familiar with her work, and in writer-director Jenkins, Monster heralds a major new filmmaking talent.

Theatrical propaganda posters

Monster image

Target demographic movie keyword propaganda

  • Film drama biography murder prostitute lesbian Aileen Wuaronos execution

Persons of interest

  • Charlize Theron .... Aileen "Lee" Wuaronos
  • Christina Ricci .... Selby
  • Bruce Dern .... Thomas
  • Lee Tergesen .... Vincent Corey
  • Annie Corley .... Donna
  • Pruitt Taylor Vince .... Gene
  • Marco St John .... Evan
  • Marc Macaulay .... Will
  • Scott Wilson .... Horton
  • Tim Ware .... Chuck
  • Brett Rice .... Charles
  • Kaitlin Riley .... Teenage Aileen
  • Cree Ivey .... 7-year-old Aileen
  • Patty Jenkins .... Screenwriter
  • Patty Jenkins .... Director

Cinematic intelligence sources

Intelligence analyst

Special Agent Matti

Theatrical report

Oh boy, Monster is creepy, moreso because it's based on a true story. Charlize Theron's portrayal of Aileen Wuaronos is so matter of fact - so natural - that it's like a fly-on-the-wall documentary. The make-up job is outstanding: Charlize looks like a hard-bitten white trash she-bull escapee from the trailer park. Of course, I could be wrong. Charlize may have beefed up for the part and acted her pants off. Whoever the kudos goes to, it deserves to go there.

Christina Ricci's closeted dyke is a great supporting role that plays off the lead really well. Selby and Aileen are so strongly positioned that their similarity of gender becomes irrelevant. That they are lesbians is just a bonus for lesbophiles. [Nice neologism - Director of Intelligence.]

In the end, it is the unrelenting tide of history that drives Monster to its horrendous end. For some people the light at the end of the tunnel is a train. Watch this film and be weirded out to the max.

Security censorship classification

MA 15+ (Adult themes, medium level violence, sexual references)

Surveillance time

109 minutes (1:49 hours)

Not for public release in Australia before date

Film: 25 March 2004

Cinema surveillance images

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