Cady's Take:

Charlize Theron made an astonishing physical transformation, gaining 30 pounds to play the truck-stop prostitute and serial killer Aileen Wuornos in the biopic "Monster”. Charlize Theron WAS Aileen Wuornos. The easily recognizable actress was gone. Her performance was engrossing, but was the film's story equally as powerful? “Monster” is Theron’s movie from beginning to end, owning every frame with a steely wide-eyed determination that’s stunning. In fact, the former South African model is so good she only helps point out everything that’s wrong about the film.

Rookie writer-director Patty Jenkins shows a lot of empathy toward her subject in this film. Clearly, Jenkins wants us to sympathize with Wuornos. She is portrayed as a misunderstood woman on the fringe of society with demons spawned of a troubled upbringing.

Early on in the film Wuornos staggers into a lesbian bar with her last $5 when up walks Selby (Christina Ricci). Romance quickly blooms as neither woman can find anything else worth living for. Driven to do right by this girl, Aileen returns to the streets, hoping to earn enough to keep her new love happy. The first murder is an act of survival, a trick gone bad. Emptying six shots into his chest, she kills the first of seven men. Before long she kills to satisfy the growing monetary requirements of her remarkably needy girlfriend and to avenge the crimes perpetrated by men in her horrific past.

The film toys dangerously with the notion that society itself may be the one responsible for her downward spiral. Although truly painful to watch at times, Monster nonetheless deserves to be seen, if only for Theron's startling tour-de-force performance.

“Monster” is the “true story” of Aileen Wuornos, “America’s First Female Serial Killer.” I followed her 2002 murder trial closely and remember being fascinated by her demeanor and appearance. This lady was a hooker? Who would pay to sleep with her? She was not pretty or feminine and her claims that rape and abuse had turned her into a serial killer made me wonder – would people be more sympathetic to that claim if Aileen were beautiful and fragile instead of inelegant and tough?

By the time I watched “Monster” Charlize Theron had already won her Golden Globe and her Oscar for her performance. I knew from clips that she was going to be wonderful, and I quite honestly wasn’t prepared for such authenticity. Theron was completely in character both physically and emotionally. Unfortunately “Monster” makes Aileen sympathetic to such a degree that it seems like director Patty Jenkins is purposely giving us the opposite story, the one the media chose not to portray. I am left with a feeling that neither the media nor Jenkins has brought me any closer to understanding Wuornos. Instead of investigating the rape, the incest, the baby Lee had at 13, they are thrown out as conversational chum, and we smell blood and we follow along but to what end? Unfortunately, there is the implication that we should feel sorry for Aileen, and to be honest, I really do not. Plenty of people live hard lives – harder than hers – and they do not kill other people. Wuornos killed people because she liked it; was it cathartic of her abuse? Maybe. That does not matter. Never for a moment did she think what she was doing was right. She knew it was wrong. Justifiable (for her), but wrong.

“Monster” is worth the rent for Theron’s performance – who knew “The Astronaut’s Wife” had it in her – but this is ultimately a movie about excuses and how one woman convinced herself that her pain excused her behavior. I didn’t like being told I should feel sorry for her because that pain drove her to kill seven people. Murder is not an inevitable outcome for victims of abuse and shouldn’t be portrayed as such.