The most powerful movie and acting I have seen in a long, long, long time. I had to keep reminding myself that I was watching a "movie" and that "Lee" was only an actress. The story was the so, so sad - and so, so real. If "Lee" doesn't win an academy award it will blow my mind.

How can people be upset with the storyline of something that was based on a true story? It would have been one thing if some writer sat back in his/her chair and fabricated Aileen Wuornos' journey, but the fact that this actually (for the most part) happened makes it much more interesting. Theron's performance is mesmerizing, and she deserved the best actress oscar hands down. Go see this movie. It's well worth it. … Expand

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.

Very very good.

Excuse me, uh, Kel R, (4 messages down), it's called homophobia. keisha's performance had more passion.

Excuse me, uh, Kel R, (4 messages down), it's called homophobia. keisha's performance had more passion.

Very troubling. But wow! Theron knows the kung fu!

Theron is outstanding in this film but Ricci deserves an Oscar as well. Her excellent understated portrayal of passive agressive control was dead on. Yes it is a depressing movie but it definitely sticks with you.

AMAZING PERFORMANCE BY CHARLIZE THERON!!! I can't say 'best' because I didn't see "21 grams" because the previews looked stupid (i'll give it a lok though), and Naomi Watt's performance is said to rival Theron's (yeah, right). I will see "21 Grams" and compare, but if it's some silly overhyped movie like "Fargo" or "My Big Fat Greek Wedding".....

"Aileen and Selby never spoke again." It's just like the 'Monster's Ball' hype circus all over again. What drew the oh-so-esteemed critics' attention to this stunted junk? I'm seriously confused. (Casual note to self: Never go out of my way in the near future to view any widely acclaimed limited release featuring the word 'Monster' in the title, at least until it leaves the big screen. It will most likely be utterly facile, plus offer absurd gender/race/social-issue politics and pretty bad scenery-chewing starlet spotlight front & centre.)… Expand

The film I give a seven but for Therons performance thats a 10 all the way to the Oscar stage.I've seen Watts and she is clearly the comp for Theron that night.Watts has other chances but this will be Therons last being that she'd never gain another thirty pounds in her life.

[**SPOILERS**] The first text we see on screen is ?Based on a True Story?. Throughout the film I asked myself just how true is this story. By the end of the film, I didn?t care. Because what I see on screen is done with such conviction it doesn?t matter if the film is completely factually or a work of fiction. The biggest problem with making non-fiction, non-documentary movies about is engaging the audience into suspense, though they already may know the outcome. The biggest problem with making a biopic about an American is that they only have a first and third act of their life. Aileen Wuornos (Charlize Theron) had a second act of her life, and the focus of the film is on that part. The first act would be about her young days as a hooker, and the third act would be her time on death row. The second act would be the in betweens, the doors if you will, the time of her life with Selby Walls and the murders that she committed. Aileen Wuornos always wanted to be a movie star, or at least just beautiful?and rich, much to the liking of Marilyn Monroe (and the star Charlize Theron). She was always hoping someone who worked for the studios would discover her; she was always looking in a bar. She lived her young life as a fantasy before evolving into a hooker. She was on her last $5, and she asked God if He has anything planned for her, He better deliver it soon, because if she doesn?t find anything today, she?s leaving this world. She goes into a gay bar and orders the cheapest beers available when a meek lesbian named Selby Walls (Christina Ricci) approaches her. After a long conversation and 10 shots of liquor, Selby invites Aileen to stay the night at her place. Charlize Theron has completely embodied Aileen Wuornos. It?s ironic that actresses may often look better in movies than they do in real life, for in this film, it?s the completely opposite. It?s also ironic that this be the first film I see Theron nude in, for after seeing it, I really wish I hadn?t, with her sizable weight gain great deglamourizing makeup, there is no doubt that this is the best lead performance of the year. She, like Nicole Kidman last year, reversed her good looks and will receive her Academy Award looking glamorous and beautiful, when she played a woman that look oh so different. Selby and Aileen start falling for each other, but when Aileen learns that Selby might have to leave Florida, she goes back out on the streets to get money. One sleazy guy picks her up and takes her to a forest. He makes an insipid comment that disgruntles Aileen, so the sleazebag knocks her out. When she comes conscious, the he?s about to violently sodomize her, then, she changes everything. She pulls a gun out and caps him away. She was clearly acting in self-defense. But something good came out of this; she takes all his money, clothes, and his car and joins Selby as they ride into a hotel with all his money. Selby has no clue what happened. After three or four murders, I was wondering why hadn?t the police caught on yet. The reason is easy, they were biding their time to make her a serial killer, because three or four murders isn?t quite enough to be considered serial, you have to get at least five. They did this so they could sell her story to Hollywood, which is the fruition on the screen. She gradually becomes a monster. The first guy she murdered was a rapist and the last guy was an honest ?Man of God?, who really wanted to help her. Everybody in between (the doors) was just a gradual step toward her end. The title is said in the film to be derived from this great rollercoaster ride that was at a fair that Aileen went to in her youth. It was called the ?Monster?, and she waited all summer to ride it, and when the time finally came, she vomited several times before reaching the first drop. Theron?s perfected swagger and speech of Aileen Wuornos is the success of the film, not the great make-up effects. For al the soul she puts into Wuornos heavily outweighs even the best of special effects. What a woman. … Expand

Why is it suddenly so cool to call everything disturbing "pornography? oh, "monster" bothered me, its porno. "the passion" is porn too. you know what i think is messed up? someone who watches a movie like this and makes any connection with porn. did you think about that? this movie is great, though. how about this: if your only criticism of the movie is "it was gross" or "it cussed a lot" then keep that to yourself because that has nothing to do with the quality of the film.… Expand

Charlize IS the movie. There is no one else you see!

Disturbing movie. Theron deserves her Oscar for portraying the serial killer role for her acting. My beef is that there should be R18 trailers regarding the disturbing graphic violence. This movie was disturbing and it should have been toned down.

Good performances from Theron and Ricci, but I just couldn't buy into the love story between the hideous killer Wuornos and the cute, innocent Shelby. The real Shelby was actually Tyria Moore, who had red hair and was a big-boned girl, overweight and homely. If the movie had portrayed Shelby/Tyria a little closer to reality, this could have been a powerful film.

Ms. Theron's performance is indeed amazing but the movie itself is average. The subject matter was better covered on the TV show American Justice.

While the film evidently takes liberties with actual characters and events, it still comes across as remarkably unpretentious and authentic. I found it to be a powerful and precise journey into a world where our society puts unnecessary stresses on those of us who are damaged goods, how sometimes we just snap and become unredeemable. At the same time it assigns responsibility for making poor career choices. After watching Theron's performance, it seemed obvious that the Best Actress Oscar could not have gone to anyone else. This film exposits ugly premises, but I can find little fault in the presentation. It reminded me of Blue Velvet, but with a limited breadth of perspective. Perhaps it needed one character to validate some life-affirming alternatives - there is always one around.… Expand

I gave this movie one star because of the makeup work on Charlize Theron. This was a feminist Bonnie and Clyde production from start to finish. There is no way that Charlize Theron deserved the best actress for this. Most of her acting was overplayed and at times laughable. The filmmaker wanted us to feel sorry for this person but I refuse to do so.There was nothing in this story for me to hold onto or care about, a complete waste of time. Rot in hell Aileen Wournos!!!… Expand

This is one of the best movies I have ever seen!

Interestingly, this film ALSO reminded me a little bit of "Boys Don't Cry" (as noted in the Variety blurb), it just wasn't as good. Both deal with people living on the fringe who we just don't see very much of in "typical" society. For once, the performance lives up to the hype...Theron is tremendous, and deserves at the very least an Oscar nomination. Although it's always disheartening to me when people have to wear make-up to make them look WORSE! My "7" rating means I liked it, but it is a VERY depressing movie. … Expand

And the Oscar goes to Charlize Theron. Hands-down, the outstanding female performance of the year...the best since Hilary Swank's turn in "Boys Don't Cry." A riveting film.

Charlize Theron should receive the best actress award......outstanding performance!

Charlize Theron gives a powerful portrayal of a marginalized personality that shatters before your very eyes. In the end, you neither love nor hate Aileen...but, in some disturbing way, you understand her. The Academy "powers that be" will have lost their minds if they don't recognize this film.

Theron might be one of the best actresses to come along since hoffman, penn, and pacino.

I have always been obsessed with Aileen Wuornos. I guess you could call me a male serial hag. I thought Nick Broomfield's first documentary was amazing and I actually cried a year ago in October when Aileen was executed. When I heard Charlize Theron was going to play Aileen in a movie, I was appalled. However, while watching the flm, I was in awe. Not only does Theron look like Wuornos in the film, she has captured every mannerism of Aileen's physical and psychological persona. She IS Aileen Wuornos in this film. I don't understand critics who claim that the film is ambiguous about whether it wants us to empathize with Aileen or not. It forces us to do so. It forces upper middle class intelligentsia into aligning our subjectivity with a $20 truckstop whore. In the film Aileen details a ferris wheel called The Monster. Once she got on, she realizes it was horrible and scary but she knew she had no choice. You can't jump off a ferris wheel. It's like her life. She didn't ask to be born in a pederastic family. She didn't ask to be repeatedly raped, literally and figuratively. She is not an innocent victim but she is someone for whom the ride of life was one monstrous turn after the next. The film demands that you see Aileen as a human being and in doing so is truly a revolutionary piece of art. Maybe if someone would have been so radical as to view this woman as human being at some point earlier in her life, both she and her six victims (the first crime was a vigilante act of justice and not a murder) would be alive today. Thank you Patty Jenkins and Charlize Theron for reminding America that even man-killing, lesbian, ten dollar, "redneck" psycopaths are human beings capable of love and deserving of love. While I doubt Ms. Theron will thank Aileen when she wins the Oscar for portraying her, I think her performance already has done just that and I applaud her for being so humane as to demand that Aileen was not some piece of trash to be thrown away but a human - the fact that this message is seen as too radical by our country clearly displays who the true monster is.… Expand

Excellent, painful to watch, gritty and cruel! An excellent movie!

Theron gives the year's best performance in this entralling story.

Theron did an excellent job. Good movie.

For this movie, Theron deserves an 11. I cannot remember being so convinced by a role. Ricci's acting was weak, though physically perfect for the role. The movie has no "point" and this at once harms and aids its. In addition, there is no rising tension, climax, or meaningful resolution - you are essentially flat-linned throughout. You can't mind it, however, because Theron';s acting it so memorable. … Expand

I think critics of this movie fail to take into account that at any given time in America , 100 or more serial killers are roaming the country searching for prey. To criticize Charlize Theron for giving an 'over the top' performance is disingenuous. We need more movies like this that don't sugar-coat life.

The film maintained an amateurish tone that was set by the cliched voiceover device that opened the film. The film continued to shock and bother me; it seemed to walk a very fine line between pornography and drama. Still, the film's final moments moved me monumentally, and I left the theater not hating it as I had anticipated earlier on in the film, but wondering what would have happened if the entire film had been so compassionate. Then the film would be deserving of the praise it is collected. Theron was certainly good, but I think that she was more so praised because of her physical transformation. Ellen Burstyn, for example, who underwent a similarly dramatic physical change for her role in Requiem for a Dream, was exponentially more heartbreaking and convincing, but the hype over Monster sealed Theron's success. People swooned over the supermodel destroying her body for a role, though other actresses have gone to similar lengths, people seemed anxious to give Theron the ONE Oscar she would ever have the chance of getting. There were indeed better performances this year, and yes, as reviews below have noted, Watts was certainly better. … Expand

Don't get me wrong, this movie was well made. I just hated the story so much, and I wanted to walk out of the cinema within the first 15 minutes. I'm sure it deserves whatever praise it gets, but it's not my cup of tea.

Theron's performance is more so a conglomeration of mannerisms than a real performance. She never really seemed to become Aileen rather than mimic her, almost condescendingly. I found her voice over narration cloying and inept, the storyline manipulative (strange how as the murders progress, they become more and more 'shocking'), and her relationship with Selby was founded on such unbelievable grounds that I could never take them seriously. Very nice use of 80's songs though (particularly the roller rink scene which I can't expel from memory), and I must admit, and by the end, I was strangely moved by the scene where they speak on the telephone. Still, the movie felt entirely superficial to me. It's all meat, and no bones. … Expand

The story is so bored with itself, it collapses -- but the diverse troupe of dance talents at least makes it an eclectic slide.

Charlize Theron, bristling with wit and energy, is at her amusing best in this robust comedy. Great cast, and lotsa reasons to watch it.

Charlize Theron did a wonderful job of portraying Aileen Wuornos. She was totally believable and is a marvelous actress. I rented this movie on the rebound because there was nothing else of interest at the time, and was pleasantly surprised. The title "Monster" puts people off from the get go.

Dear lord...where to begin... Ok, Charlize Theron gives an amazing performance in this movie, but I almost missed it because I was scared to look at her for most of the movie. Outside of that, the movie is incredibly well done, and quite entertaining if you like depressing stories about hookers-turned-lesbians-turned-murderers. If you're a serial killer buff, you'll love it. Otherwise, you might like it if it doesn't make you lose your lunch.… Expand

Intense, heart-wrenching movie! A sad story that makes you cry!

The idea is honorable. the movie, however, was rather disappointing. tv-production level.

If Theron doesn't win the Oscar, the Academy should hang up its award because it will prove once and for all that it's no longer a barometer of artistic merit.

Charlize Theron was quite good - and what a transformation! - but the movie itself was a bit of a disappointment. And yet, though Theron is quite a remarkable force onscreen, nobody - and I mean NOBODY - gave a better performance this year than Naomi Watts in '21 Grams.' After being completely shafted by the Academy after her tour-de-force performance in 'Mulholland Drive,' it is Watts' turn to get the gold. Here's hoping she cleans up at the Oscars. Theron would be my runner-up.… Expand

A great performance from Theron, but a turgid and over-rated film. The sort of film that snags the Oscar, and then is eventually forgotten.

A superb film! Riveting! Theron is brilliant! Tells the story the way it should be told. A sad social commentary on what our society is and has become. A must see movie.

Actually, I HAVE seen Monster and 21 Grams and Naomi Watts is CLEARLY more deserved of the Best Actress award. Theron is either on or off, and she is just too much most of the time, though toward the end of the film, she is rather incredible. Still, the film itself is shoddily composed and thoroughly unconvincing in its first half. Hooray for Naomi Watts! The award BELONGS to you.

this movie was thought provoking, showing you a life very different from what people usually see in the movies. It shows the nitty, gritty side of life. It was tough to watch but after watching it, i thought that it combines a lot of elements that hollywood is unused to. Charlize Theron gives an amazing performance.

Wow, charlize was great in this movie, it was kind of scary to me but other than that it was nothing but great acting. I loved it!!

Good performances all round and constant sense of sadness cannot hide the fact that Patty Jenkins is just justifying the sick crimes of Eileen Wournos by blaming it all on men. We're meant to feel sorry for her and understand why she did it. Sorry but many people have been victims of terrible things in their earlier years, but thats no excuse. This remains a feminist exercise on how, when a woman, everything you do can be blamed on something else. Shameful. … Expand

Some great performances but really a very non factual account of what this woman did. To see just how incorrect this depiction is read here. http://www.clarkprosecutor.org/html/death/US/wuornos805.htm

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!

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.