Monster's Ball (2001)
Each and every frame of "Monster's Ball" is steeped
in a sorrow and a weariness that it practically drenches
the audience. The characters, whether having sex or
simply sitting, seem so very, very tired. And that,
I think, is the point of the film. Its theme: Racism,
is such a tired, tired subject. Racism here is dying.
Here we see racism in its twilight years, as it dies
a vagrant's death. Racism, as it is personified by the
father character played by Peter Boyle, is old and gasping
for breath. It is being put out to pasture, into an
old folks' home. It's done. The new world, as tired
and sorrowful and weary as it is, has no room for useless
bigotry based on race. That is the message that permeates
every frame of "Monsters Ball."
The new world order, as it is presented by "Monsters
Ball," in the relationship of Billy Bob Thornton and
Halle Berry, is hardly secure nor perfect. Its hopefulness
of white and blacks, of light skinned man and dark skinned
woman, living together, caring for one and other, comes
with so much baggage it is almost doomed to failure.
Only forgiveness and hopefulness itself can hope to
save it.
Halle Berry's black woman here (African-American
does not accurately describe her as this film is indeed
as much about skin color as it is about cultural heritage)
is a wondrous creature adrift in a world she cannot
ever hope to control. Her husband, a death row prisoner,
is about to be killed, considered unfit to even be allowed
to survive by society. Her son, an overweight child,
is persecuted by Berry because she cannot imagine a
world which will accept him, her own usefulness is defeated
when, even though a gainfully employed person, she cannot
maintain the payments on her house nor keep her car
in running order. Consistently, Berry is shown to be
unable to survive in the modern world and her family
does nothing but die around her.
Meanwhile, Billy Bob Thornton's man-in-flux is
an old-school racist about to awaken to his own idiocy.
His father, Peter Boyle, is a hard-core racist who is
too ignorant about human nature to ever accept weakness
or humanity in others, especially men. Thornton's son
(Heath Ledger, unable to maintain a decent American
southern accent) is as adrift as his old man. Feeling
neither love nor understanding from his father, he opts
for no life at all. Thornton, blindsided by his own
inability to express anything remotely human towards
the members of his family, finally finds solace in a
desire to help Berry.
The centerpiece of the film, where Berry and Thornton
get drunk and then have sex, is one of the most human
and radically realistic moments you will ever see on
film. I imagined my mother (a prude in such matters)
watching it and realized her inability to accept such
a scene. It is hard to imagine the deeply hurt and freshly
wounded human souls that Berry and Thornton expose her
as able to find solace in a sexual liaison. Yet the
scene as played by these two marvelous actors appears
as fresh and as crystalized as one can imagine. It is
a cinematic moment that must be seen to be appreciated.
The frank and honest sorrow and anger and hurt and hopelessness
and humanity of the scene is beautifully painful to
watch. Thornton's character expresses it best, after
the fact, when he plainly admits, "It's been a long
time since I felt anything." Their characters are not
simply lost before the scene, they are deadened, seemingly
soulless. The sex here awakens them to reality. It is
their rebirth.
Berry and Thornton should be proud of their work
here. It is flawless. It is exceptional. It is some
of the most brutally honest acting you will ever see.
Each deserves all of the accolades heaped upon them
for their work here. Berry proves herself a monumental
actress. Thornton, with this and his other outstanding
work, proves himself perhaps the best actor of the new
millennium.
"Monsters Ball" stands as a film that should be
the last cinematic expression of the complete inhumanity
and absurdity of racism. If only. If only...
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Card
Script:
A
Acting: A+
Cinematography\Lighting: A+
Special Effects\Make Up: A+
Music: A-
Final
Grade: A+
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