Monster's Ball Review
by Rose 'Bams' Cooper (bams AT 3blackchicks DOT com)February 7th, 2002
MONSTER'S BALL (2001)
Rated R; running time 111 minutes
Studios: Lions Gate Films
Genre: Drama
Seen at: Celebration Cinema (Lansing, Michigan)
Official site: http://www.monstersballthefilm.com/
IMDB site: http://us.imdb.com/Details?0285742
Written by: Milo Addica, Will Rokos
Directed by: Marc Forster
Cast: Billy Bob Thornton, Halle Berry, Peter Boyle, Heath Ledger, Sean Combs, Coronji Calhoun, Mos Def
Review Copyright Rose Cooper, 2002
Review URL:
http://www.3blackchicks.com/2002reviews/bamsmonstersball.html
Movies these days are filled with cookie-cutter, flava-of-the-month monsters: if it's not Godzilla and Cujo, it's Nazis and Terrorists and Republicans (oh my!). It's far too easy to paint The Bigot as some mouth-breathing drooler, all tailor-made for America to rally its We Are The World (And We'll Beat Anybody Up Who Says Otherwise) flag around. Far too simple to make The Criminal a target for Hollywood to push its next big "I'll Be Back" tag line at. It's much harder, I think, to make a Monster out of Joe Average, The Next-Door Neighbor. Though it's not perfect, MONSTER'S BALL goes a long way towards humanizing the many monsters amongst us. Or at least, towards mirroring the many monsters within ourselves.
THE STORY (WARNING: **spoilers contained below**)
"Loss" is a theme that runs rampant in MONSTER'S BALL. Leticia Musgrove (Halle Berry) lost her husband Lawrence (Sean "Puffy" Combs) 11 years ago when he was convicted and sent to prison, now awaiting execution; and because of his absence, she's on the verge of losing her job and her house. Their son Tyrell (Coronji Calhoun) experiences the loss of his father through the loss of his own power to control his obesity. And unfortunately for Leticia, her losses have just begun.
As have Hank Grotowski's (Billy Bob Thornton). His family's loss of their mother is a sore spot for all of them, just as Hank and his father Buck's (Peter Boyle) loss of racial tolerance affects Hank's son Sonny (Heath Ledger) and Sonny's friend Ryrus (Mos Def). Hank, a second-generation prison guard whose father retired from the same prison Hank and Sonny work in, has only the routine of doing his job in a precise, lockstep manner, to see him through the day. But when Sonny mishandles his role in the execution of Lawrence, a chain of events leads to even more losses for the Growtowski family.
An unlikely set of circumstances throw Hank and Leticia into the same orbit, with neither fully knowing at first the situations that connected them before the day they met. How they handle what they've lost - and what they might find - is the issue at hand.
THE UPSHOT
I don't have a hope in the world that Halle Berry will ever read this review, but in case she does, let me say it for the record: I was simply wrong in all those reviews before. You are indeed the Real Deal.
From start to finish, Berry rendered my previous "yeah, she's pretty, but she can't really act" statements null and void. Many will talk about her nude scenes in the same tittering tones as they - we - did about her breastessess in the far inferior SWORDFISH. Apples and oranges; the two movies aren't even in the same universe as far as I'm concerned. Here, Berry's nudity is completely relevant, even if director Marc Forster did seem to get carried away with his love for stark camera angles there and throughout this film. The pain, and eventual redemption, that passed between Berry's and Thorton's characters was *palpable*; when Hank told Leticia "I felt you", I said to myself "damn, I did too".
As I said above, it's very easy to draw Ugliness like Hank's hateful father in broad strokes, though an actor the caliber of a Peter Boyle at least makes it interesting to watch. But Thornton's Ugly nature is a little harder for us to handle; we want to sympathize with him, to root for what we know is the Good in him - even when he's already shown us something less than Good. Thornton, who I once thought would be limited to quirky roles, continues to impress me with his strength and range; even after being in more quality movies in one year than any major star I've seen in awhile, Thornton still has it like that.
And talk about a tale of two woeful sons! Tyrell (Coronji Calhoun) wasn't given a break, not even in Leticia's grief; and poor Heath Ledger - who hasn't quite mastered the art of making an Aussie tongue sound Southern - was little more than a sacrificial lamb. Though both Tyrell and Sonny were focal points of the film, they weren't around long enough for the audience to make much of an emotional investment in them, nor in Ryrus, played by rapper/poet Mos Def. I have a feeling that most of his story was left on the cutting-room floor. Too bad Puffy/Piddy/whatever's laughably bad scenes weren't on that floor instead. Sorry, but the man was grossly outclassed by everyone around him.
As far as dirt being slung at easy Southern Good Ol' Boy targets goes, the writers mostly held themselves in check. Still, they and director Forster did swing their Whifflebat more than they should've, bopping us with Symbols like Hank's hankering for black coffee and chocolate ice cream (eaten with a white plastic spoon, no less). It is to the cast's enduring credit they there were able to overcome the director's zealousness for us to see the Ugly Monsters Of Racism, by bringing out the humanity in even the worst of their characters, instead.
THE "BLACK FACTOR" [ObDisclaimer: We Are Not A Monolith]:
I know; I've said some pretty harsh things about Halle "Revlon" Berry before. And I know; I've said the following before about movies and actors who weren't as deserving of the recognition as I once thought. But I I've never meant it more than I do now: if Halle Berry doesn't get at least an Oscar nomination for her performance in MONSTER'S BALL, then there is truly no justice. Not because she's Yet Another Black Actor who might get dissed, but because she was too good to not be One Of The Five. And if there are five others equally worthy, then dammit, add another seat. She definitely deserves to be seated at that table, this time.
BAMMER'S BOTTOM LINE
More now than in anything since BOOMERANG - yes, that far back, and yes, that movie - Halle Berry's riveting performance in MONSTER'S BALL has convinced me that she's the genuine article. Beautiful without meaning to be, vulnerable without trickery, emotive without melodrama...Berry brought it all to the table. And that Billy Bob fella wasn't half bad himself.
MONSTER'S BALL rating: greenlight
Rose "Bams" Cooper
Webchick and Editor,
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Copyright Rose Cooper, 2002
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