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This
week's featured review & film archive
Sarah Jaffe reviews
independent and foreign films,
in addition to reporting the latest buzz behind
Colorado's film festivals.
Monster (2003, Patty Jenkins)
You won't recognize Charlize Theron in this film,
and only part of it is makeup and weight gain.
She's so thoroughly transformed herself into Aileen
Wuornos, roadside prostitute and serial killer,
that only hints of her identity are visible. She
can't help being beautiful at times, but that
only makes her performance that much more heartbreaking.
Aileen Wuornos was executed in 2002 in Florida
after having been convicted of killing six men.
She pled self-defense. It may be hard to believe
that killing six different men at six different
times could be self-defense, but Wuornos was defending
something more than simply her life. Perhaps one
could call it her soul.
Patty Jenkins and Theron don't come as apologists
for Wuornos. Theron has noted that she never asked
for pity. Instead, they come to make her human,
and they succeed. Christina Ricci is also stellar
as Selby Wall, the lover that Aileen thought could
save her, but eventually betrayed her for fear
of punishment. Notable as well is the fact that
the film manages to portray a lesbian relationship
without resorting to exploitative sex scenes and
prettifying in any way the women involved. Lest
you fear that this is a man-hating movie, though,
be assured that it's not. Though several men are
evil, there are women who are just as despicable,
and men who are positive influences. Their love
and desperation are evident, and the brilliant
acting as well as great script and directing by
Jenkins makes you wonder who the Monster of the
title is.
www.landmarktheater.com
21 Grams (2003, Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu)
The title 21 Grams doesn't refer to drugs, as
most people seem to think when hearing it. Instead,
it refers to the legendary weight a person loses
upon death. The weight of a soul. The film, by
the director of Amores Perros, is a meditation
on life, death, love, and fate, and the interaction
of three lives.
Sean Penn is as brilliant here as he was in Mystic
River, playing a mathematician, unhappily married
and desperately in need of a heart transplant.
Naomi Watts and Benicio Del Toro are similarly
brilliant, Watts as a woman whose husband and
daughters are suddenly killed, and Del Toro as
an ex-con and born-again Christian.
The film is told in seemingly random order, scenes
flashing forward and backward in time, and only
gradually does it start to come together, but
the superb acting from the three leads manages
to hold interest while you try to piece together
the plot. The photography is beautiful, using
different color washes and filters to convey different
times and places, and helping to make sense out
of the disjointed order. 21 Grams is powerful
and painful, making you question why things happen
and why we do the things we do. The characters
are self-destructive and yet desperate to live,
but always heartbreakingly human.
www.landmarktheater.com
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