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Monster
EMAILPRINTNewmarket Film Group

Generally favorable reviews
Based on 41 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 70 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
Genre(s): Crime | Drama
Written by: Patty Jenkins
Directed by: Patty Jenkins
Release Date:
Theatrical: December 24, 2003
DVD: June 1, 2004
Running Time: 109 minutes, Color
Origin: USA
Summary
RATING: R for strong violence and sexual content, and for pervasive language
Starring Charlize Theron, Christina Ricci, Bruce Dern, Scott Wilson, Lee Tergesen, Pruitt Taylor Vince, Annie Corley, and Marco St. John
In a revelatory performance, Charlize Theron stars in the shocking and moving true-life story of Aileen Wuornos, a prostitute executed last year in Florida after being convicted of murdering six men. While Wuornos confessed to the six murders, including a policeman, she claimed to have killed only in self-defense, resisting violent assaults while working as a prostitute. (Newmarket Films)
Also On Metacritic
FILM: Aileen: Life and Death of a Serial Killer
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database View The Trailer Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
This is one of the greatest performances in the history of the cinema.
Read Full Review >Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy
This is harsh and acid stuff, but it's exhilarating on a number of counts. For one thing, Jenkins moves with real authority between scenes of low life, tender intimacy and gripping violence; made on the cheap, her film has the iron certainty of the best art.
Read Full Review >The New Republic Stanley Kauffmann
It is Theron who transmutes and sustains this journey through the lower depths.
Read Full Review >The New Yorker David Denby
If the notoriously squeamish and slumberous members of the Academy can pull themselves together and face Monster, they should know whom to vote for as the best actress of the year. [26 January 2004, p. 84]
Dallas Observer Gregory Weinkauf
This is a powerhouse of a film, but not for the obvious reasons that it's about a female serial killer, scampering lesbians and whatever. The project's strength instead emerges from a sense of nobility and purpose in honoring its characters.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Desson Thomson
Theron has rendered herself 100 percent unrecognizable. Not since Robert De Niro morphed into hulk dimensions to play heavyweight boxer Jake La Motta in "Raging Bull" has there been a transformation this powerful and effective.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Desson Thomson
Theron has rendered herself 100 percent unrecognizable. Not since Robert De Niro morphed into hulk dimensions to play heavyweight boxer Jake La Motta in "Raging Bull" has there been a transformation this powerful and effective.
Read Full Review >Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek
Monster is a compassionate picture without any obvious agenda. And it's effective precisely because it's not a polemic.
Read Full Review >Film Threat Mark Sells
A film that you can appreciate, but it’s also one that may be difficult to watch. Because it is so course, because it is so authentic, and because the characters are so real, you feel a closeness to Lee that may be uncomfortable.
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten
Doesn’t provide any answers, and that’s both its strength and weakness.
Read Full Review >ReelViews James Berardinelli
A compelling, thought-provoking, and unsettling drama.
Read Full Review >The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt
Challenges audiences with an unrelieved portrait of self-destruction and horrific violence. American movies don't get much grimmer than this.
Read Full Review >New York Magazine Peter Rainer
Theron breaks through with a ferocious performance--a real career-changer.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Michael O'Sullivan
An okay movie made nearly great by one great thing: the bravura, mercilessly watchable performance of Charlize Theron.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club) Nathan Rabin
In her feature-film debut, writer-director Patty Jenkins combines the gritty, claustrophobic neo-realism of "Dahmer" with the unlikely gutter romanticism of "Boys Don't Cry," creating a haunting portrait of how a person can feel so desperate and hopeless that murdering for a few crumpled bills and maybe a beat-up car can begin to seem like a reasonable option.
Read Full Review >Film Threat Rick Kisonak
Jenkins' film ranks as one of the past year's very best. Like "In Cold Blood," "The Onion Field" and "Dead Man Walking" before it, her picture provides a mesmerizing portrait of the human side of evil.
Read Full Review >Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt
If you can endure watching it, you won't forget this grim cautionary tale for a long time.
Read Full Review >Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington
I don't think it's a great movie -- though Theron's is a near-great performance -- but it's not one you can easily forget.
Read Full Review >Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea
Monster brings the horror stories of everyday life down to a recognizable level -- even as the actress inhabiting that story remains startlingly unrecognizable.
Read Full Review >Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker
It's the kind of stunt that gets Oscar nominations and accolades. Theron turns it into a raw, bristling performance that deserves them.
Read Full Review >Boston Globe Ty Burr
A gruesome, helpless spiral barely saved by an actress locating humanity where few would have cared to bother.
Read Full Review >Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman
Writer-director Patty Jenkins makes an impressive debut, showing savvy that often eludes old pros.
Read Full Review >Rolling Stone Peter Travers
There's Theron, like a force of nature, compelling us to go beyond TV-movie supposition and look Wuornos straight in the eye. Her raw and riveting performance makes Monster an experience you won't forget.
Read Full Review >Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez
Theron's transformation in Monster goes far beyond mere appearance. As Wuornos, the actress gets to display a blunt, graceless physicality that is rarely needed in women's roles, which are traditionally internal.
Read Full Review >The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey
As angry, deluded, vulnerable and confused as Aileen is, the character remains an enigma. Apart from serving as an opportunity for Theron's emotionally deep-dredging performance, the movie doesn't know why it exists.
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman
In Monster Theron undergoes one of the most startling transformations in the history of movies.
Read Full Review >New York Daily News Jami Bernard
Any which way you describe this uncompromising movie, it will never sound palatable. Still, it features one of the most spectacular physical transformations by an actress hungry for a meaty role. I haven't used the term "tour de force" in all of 2003, but now it is time.
Read Full Review >New York Post Megan Lehmann
Jenkins doesn't stint on the sickening reality of Wuornos' abhorrent behavior -- it's Theron's complex, deeply felt depiction of a thoroughly messed-up soul that forces us to look beyond the monstrous nature of her acts.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Chronicle Carla Meyer
Theron is nearly unrecognizable in the role. She's also astonishingly good. Obscuring the movie star has liberated the actress.
Read Full Review >Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern
A seasoned director might have known when to ask Ms. Theron to do less, or nothing at all; as things stand, she acts at every single moment. But what brave and ferocious acting she does.
The New York Times Stephen Holden
The movie's biggest disappointment is the vague, unfocused performance of Ms. Ricci, an actress known for taking risky, unsympathetic roles. Here she seems somewhat intimidated by her character.
Read Full Review >Variety David Rooney
Gritty and compelling as Monster is, the script's not entirely satisfying elaboration of the central relationship and Ricci's somewhat ungiving performance limit the material to that of a superior telemovie rather than something emotionally richer, like "Boys Don't Cry."
Read Full Review >LA Weekly Ella Taylor
This gifted actress (Charlize Theron), who hasn't always chosen her roles well, treats this as her big chance to show what she can do, and she's convincing enough that you're not constantly looking for a Hollywood star of more than average pulchritude under all the cosmetic baggage.
Read Full Review >Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum
Honest curiosity and observation are what make this work, and in this respect Christina Ricci (as Wuornos's lover, Selby Wall) is almost as good as Theron.
Read Full Review >TV Guide Maitland McDonagh
Ricci's less flashy characterization of the immature Selby is equally skilled and meshes seamlessly with Theron's uncompromising performance.
Read Full Review >Slate David Edelstein
Apart from Theron and Christina Ricci as her lover, there's nothing in Monster that rises above the level of doggedly well-meaning, although the film is worth seeing for the acting and as a sort of palate-teaser for Broomfield and Churchill's documentary.
Read Full Review >Village Voice Laura Sinagra
Theron's empathetic victim-wrath and elemental female outrage almost trump the otherwise cartoonish gender-bending and award-grubbing po' folk put-on.
Read Full Review >Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow
Falls victim to flimsy characters and a love story that strains reality.
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times Manohla Dargis
Phony choppers and a startling resemblance to Jon Voight aren't enough to transform Theron into Wuornos, and I didn't buy either the performance or the character for a second.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 6.7 (out of 10) based on 70 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Brandon B. gave it a10:
A truly moving performance by Charlize Theron. I forgot that I was watching a movie and thought that I was really taking her place in this beautiful picture. I remember reading about Aileen's case on the news and that she was going to be executed. I thought that she deserved it, and that she should rot in hell for the murder of seven men. After watching this movie, I have changed my mind completely. Hence this film provokes thought. 10/10.
Brian G gave it a9:
Charlize Theron plays her part to perfection. Although the storyline is rather morbid, it is gripping, and as one of the critics stated "made me feel a closness to her that may be uncomfortable". I never thought I would end up on the verge of tears for a movie like this, but Theron proved my wrong.
[Anonymous] gave it a6:
Theron's performance is great, and her reason for her murders seems almost justified. But did they have to elope?!!! Great performances are countered with disgusting scenes like the one i mentioned above.
Chance gave it a10:
This is one of the best movies I have ever seen!
J. Ryan G. gave it a10:
One of the twenty greatest films ever made. Everything about it is intense, from an early embrace to Eileen's final declaration. This IS the way one tells a story!
Bit Burn gave it an8:
Very troubling. But wow! Theron knows the kung fu!
Diana gave it a1:
The idea is honorable. the movie, however, was rather disappointing. tv-production level.
