Monster's Ball
Lions Gate Films | Release Date: December 26, 2001 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
69
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 32 Critic Reviews
Positive:
25
Mixed:
6
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
As for myself, as Leticia rejoined Hank in the last shot of the movie, I was thinking about her as deeply and urgently as about any movie character I can remember. Read full review
91
Portland OregonianShawn Levy
It's a film in which complex issues are boiled down to human essences, not so much simplified as dramatized in the very best way. Read full review
90
Rolling StonePeter Travers
The actors make it unique and unforgettable. Read full review
90
The New York TimesDana Stevens
The raw intimacy of some of the scenes -- whether they take place at a diner, in the death house or in the bedroom -- is breathtaking. Read full review
90
Washington PostDesson Thomson
The movie holds you in thrall from first frame to last. Hatred is hatred unslaked. So is racism, ugliness, love, lust and sorrow. Read full review
90
Los Angeles TimesKevin Thomas
Hank is but the latest of Thornton's strikingly taciturn characters in a whole string of movies, but for Berry, Leticia represents a big-screen breakthrough. Read full review
90
Washington PostStephen Hunter
The movie's stroke of sheer genius is its wondrous ending. Read full review
88
New York PostLou Lumenick
Packs a dramatic wallop that makes it one of the year's best movies. Read full review
88
Miami HeraldRene Rodriguez
Profoundly hopeful and optimistic film. Read full review
88
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
This is as anti-Hollywood a film as I have seen in recent months, one which takes conventional plot ideas and uses them not to season a melodrama, but to enrich fully three-dimensional characters and create a forceful motion picture. Read full review
80
VarietyRobert Koehler
Burning with a quiet intensity, Monster's Ball is bolstered by a poetic, intelligent sensibility not seen in an American film since Terrence Malick's "The Thin Red Line." Read full review
80
New Times (L.A.)Gregory Weinkauf
Well redeemed by its dank atmosphere and cracker-barrel performances. Read full review
80
TimeRichard Corliss
The cast is uniformly superb, and Marc Forster's attentive direction gives proper weight to each perplexing emotion. Strip away the strident melodrama, and you have this season's moodiest, most adult love story.
78
Austin ChronicleMarjorie Baumgarten
The kind of quiet, effective film that burrows under the viewer's skin and takes root before you've had a chance to realize that it's permeated your constitutional makeup. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeJay Carr
The kind of film that could easily be undone by its own high-minded ambitions and dissolve in a pall of uplift. But it stays the course and gives the season two of its notable performances. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleEdward Guthmann
Dark and beautifully directed melodrama about the strange intersection of racism and emotional need. Read full review
75
Seattle Post-IntelligencerSean Axmaker
For all its darkness and tragedy, Monster's Ball is a film that wants to be liked and Forster stumbles over his good intentions to win the audience over. Read full review
75
Christian Science MonitorDavid Sterritt
Its ethical and intellectual insights wane when the love story kicks in, weakening what might have been a much deeper movie. Still, its performances are wonderful to watch. Read full review
75
Baltimore SunChris Kaltenbach
The film has a lot of right in it, including an ending that's suitably uncertain, but fraught with possibilities.
75
Philadelphia InquirerCarrie Rickey
Hate, love, bigotry, empathy and chance are the uninvited guests at Monster's Ball. Read full review
70
Wall Street JournalJoe Morgenstern
Halle Berry is something else as Leticia Musgrove, the widow of an inmate who's just been executed by Hank and his crew, and that something else is commandingly passionate.
70
Film ThreatMichael Dequina
Berry delivers an extraordinary performance that will startle even her most faithful fans. Read full review
70
Chicago ReaderLisa Alspector
A black waitress and a white corrections officer in rural Georgia experience more misery in the first hour of this movie than some people do in a lifetime, and to its credit the drama doesn’t collapse under the weight. Read full review
67
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
A traffic map of calls and responses, lessons and homework, wishes and fulfillment. All roads lead to acting-award nominations, but none lead to truth. Read full review
63
Chicago TribuneMark Caro
A serious movie made by seriously talented people, and I never quite came 'round to it. Read full review
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