Film Review: Monster's Ball (2001)

If we are to base perception of America on award-winning or award-grabbing Hollywood films made in past two decades or so, we might conclude that the only problems in that country have something to do with race. Some might be such notion overly simplistic, but, on occasion, it can inspire remarkable or at least interesting pieces of cinema, like in the case of Monster’s Ball, 2001 drama directed by Marc Forster.

Protagonist, played by Billy Bob Thornton, is Hank Grotowski, corrections officer in Georgia state prison. Stress at work is nothing compared what he has to deal at home, which he shares with two other generations of Grotowskis. His old and disabled father Buck (played by Peter Boyle) is retired correction officer and unapologetic racist who did everything to carry out his beliefs to his son. He mostly succeeded in it because Hank doesn’t like Sonny (played by Heath Ledger), his own son who also works as correction officer, to have black friends. In the meantime, black woman named Leticia Musgrove (played by Halle Berry) is faced with more immediate problems – she is about to lose her job, she is threatened with eviction over unpaid bills, her car broke down and her son Tyrell (played by Coronji Calhoun) has serious problem with obesity. Coincidentally, Leticia’s husband Lawrence (played by Sean “Puff Daddy” Combs) is artist convicted of murder and awaiting execution in the same prison where Hank and Sonny work.

Monster’s Ball is best known as the film that won Oscar for Best Actress for Halle Berry, who thus became the first (and so far the only) African American woman to win this award. This achievement, which was in its time celebrated as a proof that voters of Academy finally discarded all their racial bias, came as result of Berry’s decision to appear in low budget film. Decision was rather risky because the role also required willingness to take part in sex scene which was quite graphic for early 21st Century mainstream Hollywood. Berry, however, played her role very well and it could be said that her Oscar was well-deserved. Billy Bob Thornton also did very good job, playing a complex character that begins as racist only to gradually liberate himself from his bias and family traumas and start what was once inconceivable – romance with black woman. Veteran character actor Peter Boyle also took risk and gave strong performance playing arguably the most despicable character of his career and what turned out to be his last great film role. Same can be said of Heath Ledger, who played character very different from good looking heroes he had played in his other Hollywood films by that point. Even rap artist Sean Combs handled his rare attempt at acting with noticeable success.

Excellent acting was accompanied by good script by Millo Addica and Will Rokos, which seemed a tailor-made for Swiss director Marc Forster who gave Monster’s Ball surprisingly European flavour. This can be best seen in very slow tempo, which allows audience to get familiar with characters and thus prepare for emotional shocks that await them during the course of the plot. “European” spirit of Monster’s Ball can be also seen in its ideology, because it portrays America almost exactly like snobbish European left-wing film makers liked to imagine it – as a land of violence, class differences, racism and barbaric practice of death penalty, which runs contrary to seemingly enlightened and civilised Old Continent. Forster’s film had good fortune of being released during the early years of George W. Bush’s presidency, when such sentiments used to be popular not only in Europe but almost among every bien pensant among critics. Monster’s Ball received a lot of praise, while some of its flaws were ignored. Those include almost parodical levels of pathos in depiction of Leticia’s problems and some elements of the plot that might be interpreted as insult to viewer’s intelligence. Yet, that insult can be forgiven because Monster’s Ball is, despite wearing authos’ ideology on its sleeve, a well-acted and powerful drama.

RATING: 7/10 (+++)

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