Well, there is the Hilary Swank factor where the Academy as a whole will give the Oscar to someone whose performance totally embodies the character they are playing, and on that note, Theron would get the nod over Keaton.

I saw this film last night, and I was very moved by Theron's performance. I really felt sorry for this woman. I agree that the story could have been beefed up a bit, but Theron made up for the script problems. She should recieve at least a nomination for Best Actress; it will be a shame if she doesn't win though. Diane Keaton has played the same part in most of her films. Theron definitely catapulted her career with this role.

I've had Nick Broomfield's excellent documentary on Lee Wuornos on video for many years now.

I urge you - catch the NB true-life documentary any way you can. Not only will it show you the real Aileen Wuornos (unforgettable), but you'll come across at least three other, absolutely memorable characters .. Lee's useless singing, joint-smoking lawyer, her lesbian girlfriend, and the woman who 'adopts' Lee once she's in prison - who, to be honest, is as mad as a bagful of cats.

I'll watch Monster when it makes it over here to the UK, although I don't expect to walk out with a smile on my face ... btw, from the pics I've seen Theron looks like she's got the Wuornos 'look' absolutely bang on.

I saw "Inside The Actors Studio with James Lipton" this Sunday that featured Charlize. She's had an interesting past, being raised in South Africa, English is her second language, and she still speaks Afrikaan with her mother when they are alone. Her mother was in attendance, and looks pretty good for her age. Her first name came from her father's name "Charles". Her last name is pronounced "Thair-in" not "Thair-on". In her native language, it's pronounced something close to "throne".

Lipton even had Charlize talk a little about her father being an alcoholic and when she was 15, he came home pretty drunk and unruly, and her mother killed him in Charlize's presence. The event was ruled to be in self-defense. Her mother re-built the family business (in construction, IIRC) in 5 years afterwards and was an inspiration to Charlize.

The LOL moment was when she was discussion how a character evolves or is created while on the set, and she got to talking about some of the physical characteristic she gave to Wuornos by relaxing her knees to use her semi-double-jointedness to give her this strange way of standing/posturing when she was Wuornos, and then went on to discuss how she pulled up her jeans real high up, camel-toe and all, for the rest of the look (besides the facial makeup to get her to look as she did in the film). She had to wear dark colored contacts, and had to have a thin layer of latex applied to her face, with facial tattooing done on the latex to get that ruddy look of the skin on her face.

Charlize has now appeared in 23 films in 8 years. And she's not just a pretty face.

Totally agree.

I think Charlize Theron is absolutely amazing in this. The first half is really good but then it kind of falls off.

Still well worth seeing though.

*** out of ****

it apparently opens wide today, but its still not in my area, hopefully, once this gets an oscar nomination or 2, then it'll get a wider release.

Saw this film today. And Theron is absolutely electrifying from the first close-up. It wasn't just the make-up but her language and body mannerisms. I used to live in FL and used to see people dressed and acted like this all the time.

As for the rest of the film - there's some problems. Its incredibly hard to sympathize with a character commiting random acts of violence with the pathos relegated to dialogue - because we don't know if she's lying or not for one thing. Also, the Ricci character was very blah and even her motivations are suspect - she knew this woman was a killer but hung around longer than I expected.

Other problems in my book are editing that gives no indication of how much time is passing between scenes and an at times over blown score.

Congrats to Theron on her Golden Globe.


6/10.

Hee hee, Yeah, being in florida for a while I've noticed the samething with the way she acted as some residents acting like.

As for the time passing.. well I would say that being in florida in general you see no time change really because there isn't much of a weather change or enviromental change. Fall isn't the same and the such so seasons changing means very little in florida and you can't really tell other then the amount of showers.

Theron really deserved that globe and she is a sure in for actress come oscar time.

Saw the film yesterday. Film: ***/****, Theron's performance: ****/****.

I believe Theron or Naomi Watts (21 Grams) should win the best actress Oscar this year.

Finally watched this yesterday. Very overated. Not much story, and I didn't feel any sympathy for either woman. Maybe it was just so unsettling seeing Charlize ugly herself up so much.