Monster's Ball Review
by Laura Clifford (laura AT reelingreviews DOT com)February 11th, 2002
MONSTER'S BALL
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Hank Grotowski (Billy Bob Thornton, "The Man Who Wasn't There") has followed in his racist father Buck's (Peter Boyle, TV's "Everybody Loves Raymond") footsteps as a correctional officer at a Georgia State Penitentiary. As leader of the death squad, Hank is now training his son, Sonny (Heath Ledger, "A Knight's Tale"), in preparation for the execution of Lawrence Musgrove (Sean Combs, "Made"). When Sonny lets him down during Musgrove's last walk, the consequences are tragic, but Hank's chance meeting with Musgrove's widow Letitia (Halle Berry, "Swordfish"), a woman with her own tragedies to bear, results in redemption in director Marc Forster's "Monster's Ball."
"Monster's Ball" is a flawed film of sloppy inattention to detail and questionable emotional veracity featuring a terrific performance from Halle Berry and several scenes of stark potency. Forster's followup to his technically disadvantaged "Everything Put Together" isn't a major leap forward, yet still pegs him as a raw talent with a knack for strong lead actress portrayals.
The three generations of Grotowski men's feelings for the black people they live among are summed up in one scene. Buck spies two young neighbors running across their yard and spews vicious commentary that Hank cuts short by confronting them with a rifle shot over Sonny's protests. The backyard graves of both Buck and Hank's wives, the former a suicide, mirror the present day relationship of Hank and Sonny to the same prostitute, Vera (Amber Rules), whom they occasionally call for abbreviated sex from the same, faceless position.
When Hank's conscience demands that he pull over to assist Letitia one rainy night, they have no idea of their connection, but Hank recognizes his own grief in her plight and reaches out. After a night of whiskey and naked need, Hank discovers her identity, but keeps it to himself and continues to woo her. An encounter with Buck sends Letitia running, but Hank's literal transformation of his dark home to one of light in conjunction with Letitia's eviction brings her warily back where she makes the same discovery.
Herein lies one of the problems with Will Rokos and Milo Addica's script - everything's too neatly paralleled, exposing the script's structure rather than immersing the audience in the messiness of real life. Buck says something foul to Letitia and Hank sweeps years under the rug by shipping him off to a nursing home (where his roommate is a black man, natch). Forster allows head scratching details to pile up that may move his plot, but distract, like when Hank sees a photograph of Lawrence in a morning after visit to Letitia's bathroom. Who keeps family photographs in the bathroom? Letitia drinks Jack Daniel nips with Hank while a semi-full bottle can be glimpsed on her coffee table. Her son Tyrell 'hangs' his fathers' sketches on his bedroom walls by simply pressing them there. The titutar Monster's Ball is described as a party given the night before an execution, yet it never happens for Lawrence, while the gore from a suicidal shooting isn't cleaned off a living room chair until after the body's burial.
Still, the actors make much of the film work. The film's strongest scene happens early in the film, when Letitia brings Tyrell to visit his father one last time. Sean Combs, in yet another strong, small supporting role, quizzes his harried wife about the condition of her car and payments on the house. Berry's resentment at holding things together alone for eleven years is summed up in her simple 'I'm tired' rejoinder. Berry's demand of Hank to 'make her feel good,' results in one of the most honest portrayals of neediness ever put to film, yet Forster distracts once again with clumsy cutaways of hands entering a bird's cage, recalling the awkward handling of his prior heroine's breakdown.
Thornton, while not as strong as Berry, is also good in his second role in a row of a man of little words, although his transformation is abrupt. We're given no background as to why Hank would allow Buck to overshadow his life then jettison him after one incident. (Similarly, Musgrove is represented as such a decent man in his dealings with people, one wishes for knowledge of his crime and his history with Letitia.) Boyle is strong as the hateful bigot, as is newcomer Coronji Calhoun as Letitia's pitifully overweight son. Ledger's Sonny isn't given a chance to flesh out his character. Rapper Mos Def appears as Hank's neighbor.
"Monster's Ball" wraps up by infantilizing its heroine in a tentatively tender moment. It's a frustrating work with moments of undeniable power.
B-
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