Monster

Saw this up in Lincoln with my dad and Barb.

I didn't know much about this movie before going to it.  I knew Charlize Theron wore facial prosthetics to hide her looks, because the real person is not very pretty.   I guess I'd heard that she was a serial killer.

To me, one of the most interesting facets was that they were able to pretty much show how she ended up doing what she did.  How she talked herself into it.  How she made the transition from just kind of a loser to a murdering loser.  And how she let it go too far even for her.

She had a few mannerisms of some people I know.  Some of the mannerisms of the character were kind of interesting.  False bravado.  Trying to convince herself that whatever was happening to her was her choice.  Part of that is trying to deal with tough situations, but part was obviously more simply denial and rationalization.

Christina Ricci plays a high school girl who's sort of seduced by Theron's character.   In a way it wasn't really a seduction.  It was more that they were outcasts and just kinda ended up together by default.

The people Christina was staying with were ultra-religious fanatics.  I forget why she wasn't with her parents.  But to me, these people are the problem with the strongly devout.  They're xenophobic, close-minded, and hysterically irrational when confronted with aspects of the real world that they don't like.  They had no empathy for Christina and drove her away with their uncompromising demands.  Again, denial.   They assume that if they can deny what the real world is like then they can pretend it's the way it "should be."

On my brother's Total Movie Value Scale, Rental.  Tough subject.  Does a decent job of showing how the journey they took to get where they ended up.

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