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All-Reviews.com Movie/Video Review
Monster's Ball
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 out of 4
Review by Susan Granger
3 stars out of 4
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Memorable performance are what distinguishes this dark, dismal
drama about racism, brutality and family violence. Peter Boyle, Billy Bob
Thornton and Heath Ledger play three generations of Georgia Penitentiary
officers. The ailing, aging patriarch, Boyle, is a blunt, cruel bigot, while the
sensitive, young Ledger despises his job. Macho Thornton is in charge of Death
Row, specifically the execution of a condemned cop killer (Sean Combs) who
leaves behind a waitress wife - that's Halle Berry - and obese young son
(Coronji Calhoun) who is terrified he'll grow up 'bad' like his father. The
colloquial title refers to the electrocution ritual, minus a lawyer or minister.
Billy Bob and Halle eventually meet at a local diner, but she has no idea what
part he played in her husband's demise. Despite the outspoken racial prejudice
that he demonstrates early in the film, an unlikely romantic attraction quickly
develops between them. She's lost her husband, job, home and car - and he
becomes her protector/lover. Both Billy Bob Thornton and Halle Berry exude
vulnerability, delivering restrained yet raw, bravura performances. Writers Will
Rokos & Milo Addica and Swiss-born director Marc Forster, concentrate on the
pithy, simplistic dialogue that counterpoints the gritty, complicated
situations, involving anger and redemption, that evoke emotion, rather than
action. This is evident by cinematographer Roberto Schaefer's deliberate
close-ups of each character's stark, angst-ridden face. Yet the audience is
keenly aware that a bleak, devastating twist of discovery dangles there until
the story's conclusion, a situation reminiscent of "Message in a Bottle." On the
Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, "Monster's Ball" is a serious, slow-moving,
subtle 7, aimed specifically at arthouse audiences.
Copyright © 2002 Susan Granger
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