Movie Review of Monster (2003)

Aileen Wuornos (referred to as Lee throughout the movie) did not have a happy childhood.

In the film version, she was repeatedly raped by a friend of her father's from the age of eight. Her father then not only disbelieved her, but beat her for it too. Pregnant at thirteen, her baby was put up for adoption. It's implied that she had no choice in that.

A youngest child, she nevertheless was asked to support her brothers and sisters, once they were all abandoned by their father. She did this, from thirteen years old, by working as a prostitute. Her siblings disowned her when such information became common knowledge.

Her hard life on the streets, supported by prostitution, was close to ending in suicide, when a chance meeting brought Selby Wall into her life.

A lesbian under severe pressure from her devoutly Christian family to conform, Selby was the first person who really loved Aileen.  So much so that Aileen was prepared to go to extreme lengths to provide for her lady.  Like get a job.

Unfortunately, the job market is neither nice nor welcoming to street girls trying to go straight.  Desperate straits brought desperate measures; and choices from which she could not retreat.

Monster is a hard-hitting and powerful story, which doesn't stint on the harsh realities of cussing, sex and violence.  The latter is not gratuitous, but it does tell it as it was in Aileen Wuornos's life. At least in the close version of it that is depicted here.

The movie demonstrates with heart-breaking accuracy just how many times Aileen Wuornos could have been diverted off her eventual path. 

Time and time again, both Aileen and Selby are subjected to perfectly socially acceptable intolerance by fine, upstanding members of the community.  People felt smug and somehow noble by their willingness to ignore the somebody in need of a break.

Donna, Selby's ultra-Christian auntie, was adamant that Aileen should be chucked onto the street, despite being homeless and in need.  Because she was the wrong sort of person.  A job center official was not willing to even listen to a prostitute trying to gain legal employment.  A prospective employer was downright insulting in his rejection.

These tiny slights added to the major abuses are what Aileen used to justify her eventual murderous strategy. 

By the time that we get there, you might not condone her course of action, but you can certainly sympathize with her motives.  I found myself crying for her in certain scenes near the end. That, in my opinion, is one of the great aspects of this story.  It humanizes a serial killer; and makes us ask if there wasn't just as much petty evil in the run up to it all playing out.

The Bechdel Test looks at the way that women are represented on the silver screen.  It's a low bar standard, which a ridiculous number of movies fail.  But not this one.

Monster does have more than one named female character.  They do have conversations with each other.  Those conversations encompass more than merely talking about male characters.

Ok, so most of the female characters are judgmental, mentally unhinged, snobbish, uncaring and/or just out for themselves.  But it passes the Bechdel Test! Hurrah!