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Well this is one to avoid if you want easy
Saturday night viewing. Light entertainment this is not. Monster
Ball is a disturbing, challenging, slow and engaging film
that leaves you not knowing what to feel. Just like staring
at a car crash, we know we shouldn't but something draws you
in and you can't turn away.
The basic story line goes like this. Hank (played by Billy
Bob Thornton) works with his distressed & isolated son
as Corrections Officers and he heads the squad supervising
the execution of Lawrence. Lawrence has been on Death Row
for 11 years visited by his wife Leticia (Oscar winning performance
by Halle Berry). Tragic circumstances besets both Hank and
Leticia which leads to them finding each other. This triggers
off a strange and unlikely romance as the film struggles on.
The main theme of this film is the isolation
experienced by the two main characters. Both are experiencing
the pain of loneliness when each suffer a greater loss. It
is during their individual despair that they begin to forge
a tender relationship that seems to ease their pain. What
is amazing is that this relationship even began because of
Hank's very strong racist views. We see him earlier in the
film shooting at his black neighbours' boys when they step
on his land to visit his son.
Human relationships are a great anti-dote for the despair
that isolation brings. But is that enough? That is the question
that the film left me with. Can years of bitterness from both
Leticia and Hank be rolled away in the intimacy of a strongly
emotional sexual encounter? There is tenderness there as they
deal with their own desperation, but you leave with a strong
sense that this relationship although a comfort to each other
is only papering over the cracks.
This is an excellent study of human relationship and reflects
a society where sex is seen as a physical act that leads to
intimacy. It is suggested that this is the primary way that
we connect with each other. But as the film develops we see
that the ghosts of the past catch up with them both. This
seems to throw them closer together while their individual
backgrounds are pulling them apart.
The film deals with a number of difficult
subjects, such as the death sentence, relationships, racism
and isolation. It is done in a no frills way at a very slow
pace at times. The film has strong scenes of sex and although
it does graphically show the despair of the characters, the
main story is in danger of being over shadowed by the scenes.
The scenes could have been shorter and still had the same
disturbing affect on the viewer.
The film is called Monster's Ball because that is the name
given to the meal that the condemned man on death row on his
last night. He lives a full night eating what he wants because
he knows his life is over tomorrow. This seems to echo throughout
the film, that the characters act as they do because they
feel that there is no future; therefore no consequences of
their actions. You as I did, may have slightly different view.
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