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Helen M Jerome reviews
- Cert:
- Running time: 109 minutes
- Year: 2003
- Released: 2nd April 2004
- Sound: DTS, Dolby Digital 5.1
- Widescreen: 1.85:1
Director:
- Patty Jenkins
Producers:
- Charlize Theron, Mark Damon, Clark Peterson, Donald Kushner, Brad Wyman
Screenplay:
- Patty Jenkins
Cinematographer:
- Steven Bernstein
(Scary Movie 2, The Water Boy, Like Water For Chocolate)
Music Score:
- Brian Wayne Transeau ‘BT’
(Fast and the Furious, Driven, Under Suspicion)
Cast:
- Aileen Wuornos: Charlize Theron
Selby Wall: Christina Ricci
Thomas: Bruce Dern
Horton ‘Last John’: Scott Wilson
Gene ‘Stuttering John’: Pruitt Taylor Vince
Vincent Corey: Lee Tergesen
Donna: Annie Corley
Cubby: Bubba Baker
Evan ‘Undercover John’: Marco St John
Will ‘Daddy John’: Marc Macaulay
Cop: Rus Blackwell
Chuck: Tim Ware
Lawyer: Stephan Jones
Charles: Brett Rice
Teen Aileen: Kaitlin Riley
7-year-old Aileen: Cree Ivey
Justy: Catherine Mangan
Bar Lap Girl: Magdalena Manville
Bartender: T Robert Pigott
Employment Agent: Romonda Shaver
Restaurant Manager: Glenn R Wilder
Wife at Accident: Elaine Stebbins
Undercover Cops: Kane Hodder, Christian Stokes
Bar Girls: Lyllian Barcaski, Nonalee Davis
Himself: Al (at Last Resort)
Himself: Cannonball
Trevor: Chad Vaccarino
Judge (Hon Gene R Stephenson): Gene R Stephenson
Skate Rink Attendant: Jesse Stern
Police Chief: Bill Boylan
Newscaster: Jim R Coleman
Cute Teen Attendant: Chandra Leigh
Attendants: Lori McDonald, Adam Brown
Performance of a lifetime is a much overused accolade, but after seeing stunning ex-model Charlize Theron so completely transformed into real-life, white trash, serial killer Aileen Wuornos, this is the only phrase that does Theron justice. By putting on almost 30 pounds in weight (a la Robert De Niro in Raging Bull) Theron and her first-time director Patty Jenkins were part-way there, but the full transformation only took place when hair and contact lenses were changed and skin weathered. And most importantly, two new sets of teeth were constructed, forcing Theron¹s voice and bearing to change to accommodate them.
Wuornos’ story is already familiar from Nick Broomfield’s documentaries, Aileen: The Life And Death Of A Serial Killer and the earlier Aileen Wuornos: The Selling Of A Serial Killer, so we may be vaguely aware of the case and Aileen¹s eventual fate. But this dramatic film brings home the extreme emotions and desperate violence when Wuornos turned from bitter prostitute to vengeful killer back in the 1980s. Be warned: this is no date movie!
We first encounter Aileen or ‘Lee’ as a child, then teen in flashback, with Theron¹s monotone voiceover adding to the sense of inescapable fate that dogs Lee¹s every step. The first pivotal moment in her life is when she accidentally wanders into a gay bar, drunk and suicidal, and encounters the painfully shy and closeted Selby Wall, played by Christina Ricci. She’s an unwilling companion for the diminutive Selby, but is content to have drinks bought for her and somewhere to sleep that night. Having been ill-treated by every man she’s ever known, except her homeless friend Tom (beautifully acted by Bruce Dern), it becomes a short leap from Lee’s initial declaration “I’m not gay” to “I was flexible” to “All I had left was love”. Lee and Selby¹s passionate lesbian love affair kicks off when they go roller-skating at a seedy rink as Blondie and Journey play over the PA system and one long kiss clinches their mutual attraction.
Lee’s genuine, but obsessive, love for Selby becomes the motivation and the backdrop for all the subsequent action. Lee turns tricks on the freeway to pay for their room, even going down a dark lane with the last ‘John’ of the day. When he turns on her, beating, raping and tying her up, she goes wild, freeing herself and shooting him, emptying the entire barrel into him. This second pivotal moment is the first of a series of killings, despite a brief glimpse of another future when Lee declares she¹s giving up ‘hooking’. She wants to become a veterinarian or a businessperson or even the President of the United States, but after failing abysmally at every job interview and turning aggressive when her lack of qualifications get her nowhere, she succumbs to a violent cop in a parking garage and goes back to prostitution. “I’ve been hooking since I was 13,” she declares in a rare moment of clarity. “I’m a hooker.”
From here it’s all downhill, despite Lee¹s growing adoration of Selby. Her individual victims mount up and we get a glimpse of their growing number when we see the box in which Lee keeps newspaper cuttings of the killings. Selby declares: “You can’t kill people!”, but Lee replies: “Says who?” Ricci and Theron are utterly convincing throughout as Selby gets bored and flirts with new gal pals in Lee¹s bullish persona, and Lee looks on desperately, although she does at least muster up the courage to accompany Selby onto a ferris wheel ‘the Monster’ from her youth at a fairground.
Prostitution remains Lee¹s only method to make money to keep Selby fed, watered and happy, and get hold of a new vehicle each time she slaughters another ‘John’. But it becomes clear that she¹s utterly beyond redemption when she kills an innocent man who only wants to help. So it’s only a matter of time before fate and the law catches up with her in the final part of the film.
It would have been a travesty if Charlize Theron hadn’t won the Academy Award for Best Actress this year, but the only problem now is finding another role as good as this one. Previously typecast as eye-candy in a succession of slick movies, she needs some more gritty acting challenges to push her into the premier league of thespians. She could do a lot worse than team up with director/screenwriter Patty Jenkins again. And as for Jenkins herself, the future looks very bright.
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Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.