Monster (2003). Films like this are always a difficult watch because, whether intentionally or not, they humanise people who've acted inhumanely. Aside from the horror of it all, it's also painful and touching to see how naive Wuornos and her lover are.
'Observe the way Charlize Theron controls her eyes in the film; there is not a flicker of inattention, as she urgently communicates what she is feeling and thinking. Aileen's body language is frightening and fascinating. She doesn't know how to occupy her body. Watch Theron as she goes through a repertory of little arm straightenings and body adjustments and head tosses and hair touchings, as she nervously tries to shake out her nervousness and look at ease. Observe her smoking technique; she handles her cigarettes with the self-conscious bravado of a 13-year-old trying to impress a kid. And note that there is only one moment in the movie where she seems relaxed and at peace with herself.'
'Christina Ricci finds the right note for Selby Wall – so correct some critics have mistaken it for bad acting, when in fact it is sublime acting in its portrayal of a bad actor. She plays Selby as clueless, dim, in over her head, picking up cues from moment to moment, cobbling her behaviour out of notions borrowed from bad movies, old songs, and barroom romances.'
(Roger Ebert)
