The title refers to a supposed tradition in England of holding a party for a condemned murderer, the "monster's ball", the night before his execution. This "tradition" appears to be an invention of the scriptwriters; the death penalty was abolished in Britain more than thirty years before the film was made, and I have never come across any reference to its existence before that.
The film tells the story of a love affair between Leticia Musgrove, the widow of an executed murderer, and Hank Grotowski, a prison officer at the local jail. What Leticia does not realise is that Hank actually participated in her husband Lawrence's execution. Other plot lines include Leticia's attempt to bring up her son Tyrell after his father's death and Hank's complicated relationships with his son Sonny and with his own father Buck. Much of the tension in the Grotowski family arises from the fact that Sonny is himself a prison guard at the same jail and that Hank regards him as too "soft" to do the job. Leticia is black and Hank white, so this adds a certain racial tension to their relationship, especially as Buck is a confirmed racist and Hank seems to have inherited some of his father's attitudes. I won't set out any more of the plot, although I can say that it involves some very dark twists; Lawrence's execution is certainly not the last death. At times it almost seems too dark, as though tragedy were being piled upon tragedy.
(I said that Leticia is black, but she is of course played by the mixed- race Halle Berry. Hollywood, however, has always treated mixed-race actors as black for casting purposes, hence the casting of the Scottish- Nigerian Carmen Ejogo as Coretta King in the recent "Selma". I doubt if in reality Berry would have had a son who looked like Tyrell).
Whether Berry deserved her "Best Actress" Academy Award is something I am not sure of- personally I would incline more towards Judi Dench for her role in "Iris"- although this is probably the best of all Berry's performances which I have seen. The one really outstanding performance, however, comes from Billy Bob Thornton as the violently conflicted Hank. The late Heath Ledger is also very good as Sonny, desperately trying to live up to his father's unrealistic expectations of him.
Roger Ebert said of "Monster's Ball" that "The movie has the complexity of great fiction" and considered it the best film of 2001. Not everyone agreed with Ebert- the film was not nominated for "Best Picture"- but in one way he was right; I can certainly imagine a great novel being written around this story. That does not, however, necessarily mean that it is a great film. In a novel the author would have more space to do justice to all the many themes and characters which here are rather swept under the carpet. He would have had room to examine in more detail the relationship between Lawrence and Leticia, the crime for which he was sentenced and the American justice system which sentenced him. He could have paid more attention to the obviously troubled history of the Grotowski family- we learn, for instance, that Buck's wife committed suicide without learning why- and to the toxic father-son relationships between Buck and Hank and between Hank and Sonny. Sonny in particular seems a tragic, haunted figure, so it seemed a pity to me that he died early on and that his death was treated mostly as a prelude to the main event, the affair between Hank and Leticia.
Trying to deal with all these matters in the scope of a normal two-hour film results in a claustrophobic, over-intense piece of hothouse film- making. Despite its shortcomings as a piece of story-telling, however, the film nevertheless gives scope for some good acting. 6/10
The film tells the story of a love affair between Leticia Musgrove, the widow of an executed murderer, and Hank Grotowski, a prison officer at the local jail. What Leticia does not realise is that Hank actually participated in her husband Lawrence's execution. Other plot lines include Leticia's attempt to bring up her son Tyrell after his father's death and Hank's complicated relationships with his son Sonny and with his own father Buck. Much of the tension in the Grotowski family arises from the fact that Sonny is himself a prison guard at the same jail and that Hank regards him as too "soft" to do the job. Leticia is black and Hank white, so this adds a certain racial tension to their relationship, especially as Buck is a confirmed racist and Hank seems to have inherited some of his father's attitudes. I won't set out any more of the plot, although I can say that it involves some very dark twists; Lawrence's execution is certainly not the last death. At times it almost seems too dark, as though tragedy were being piled upon tragedy.
(I said that Leticia is black, but she is of course played by the mixed- race Halle Berry. Hollywood, however, has always treated mixed-race actors as black for casting purposes, hence the casting of the Scottish- Nigerian Carmen Ejogo as Coretta King in the recent "Selma". I doubt if in reality Berry would have had a son who looked like Tyrell).
Whether Berry deserved her "Best Actress" Academy Award is something I am not sure of- personally I would incline more towards Judi Dench for her role in "Iris"- although this is probably the best of all Berry's performances which I have seen. The one really outstanding performance, however, comes from Billy Bob Thornton as the violently conflicted Hank. The late Heath Ledger is also very good as Sonny, desperately trying to live up to his father's unrealistic expectations of him.
Roger Ebert said of "Monster's Ball" that "The movie has the complexity of great fiction" and considered it the best film of 2001. Not everyone agreed with Ebert- the film was not nominated for "Best Picture"- but in one way he was right; I can certainly imagine a great novel being written around this story. That does not, however, necessarily mean that it is a great film. In a novel the author would have more space to do justice to all the many themes and characters which here are rather swept under the carpet. He would have had room to examine in more detail the relationship between Lawrence and Leticia, the crime for which he was sentenced and the American justice system which sentenced him. He could have paid more attention to the obviously troubled history of the Grotowski family- we learn, for instance, that Buck's wife committed suicide without learning why- and to the toxic father-son relationships between Buck and Hank and between Hank and Sonny. Sonny in particular seems a tragic, haunted figure, so it seemed a pity to me that he died early on and that his death was treated mostly as a prelude to the main event, the affair between Hank and Leticia.
Trying to deal with all these matters in the scope of a normal two-hour film results in a claustrophobic, over-intense piece of hothouse film- making. Despite its shortcomings as a piece of story-telling, however, the film nevertheless gives scope for some good acting. 6/10