Customer Reviews

Monster's Ball (Widescreen Signature Series)

5 star:		(84)
4 star:		(49)
3 star:		(32)
2 star:		(41)
1 star:		(66)

 

 

I don't plan on trying to argue against the bad reviews on a point by point basis.
Instead, it's my opinion that the bad reviews are related to the fact that this film has no car chases, no explosions, so spurting blood, special effects, or any of the other [stuff] that makes up "popular films these days".
In my review I would say that this is a very well written movie, that is very well acted. The only characer I was uncomfortable with was Halle Berry's son, the first time I watched this film I didn't think he did a very good job. But the second time I realized just how much this kid had been through and why he had turned out as he had.
You won't like this film if you don't like intense drama's driven exclusively by character development.
Caution: this film requires thinking----they do not lay the whole story out for you!

This movie is by far one of the best in the last few years. One of the best things about this is its simiplicity; the human need for intimacy and love. Its this simiplicity that resonates with so many viewers. Hank and Letitia, played by Billy Bob Thorton and Halle Berry respectively, need each other. All the other things; the fact that Hank was one of the guards involved in her husbands execution, Hanks racist upbring, etc; all those things just don't matter, not as much as thier desperate need for each other. Sure there are no roses and chocolates, but don't be fooled...its a real world romance.

First things first, sorry, Berry's was NOT the best performance in this film. Far from it. Thornton steals the show as the multi-faceted racist corrections officer. In fact, I was thinking as I watched the movie that I certainly hoped it wasn't this performance that earned Berry an Oscar. Then I saw on the box that is was. Mercy, what was the Academy thinking on that choice? I thought her performance was unnatural and contrived, and not aided by the fact that her stunning beauty belied her otherwise down and out status (I'm only willing to suspend disbelief to a certain point).

As for the film itself, it grabs you from the beginning and doesn't let go. The mood it establishes, supported by an excellent musical score, almost hypnotizes you. I was disappointed by the ending, however. It seemed abrupt and gave me a feeling of incompleteness concerning the film. The fact that there wasn't much dialogue to uncover the characters along the way only added to this feeling (I felt like I was only starting to get to know these people and then . . . the credits roll). But, again, it was the mood, not the dialogue, that makes this movie work.

Halle Berry stars as Leticia Musgrove, a young African-American mother whose husband is on death row for an undisclosed crime. Her husband (Sean Combs) is executed by a white father named Hank and his son (Billy Bob Thornton and Heath Ledger, respectively). After the abusive mother's only son is killed in a freak accident, Hank (whose estranged son commits suicide) becomes entangled in Leticia's life, marked by crippling grief and great misfortune. They begin an affair, Leticia all the while not knowing that her new love was the one who killed the father of her dead son. Will she overcome this, or will she succumb to the familiar isolation she has faced nearly all of her life?

The performances are all marvelous. Thornton and Ledger maintain a quiet anger and sadness, Combs and Peter Boyle (as Hank's racist father) are both great in brief supporting roles, but nothing compares to Berry. Usually typecast as the beautiful girlfriend or token black character, she brings exquisite calibration to her work, a raw fear combined with pride and numbing insecurities. She also has some stunning hysterical moments in the film, when she realizes who Thornton's character is and when she finds out her son is dead at the hospital. The latter moment emblazons itself on your memory, as she bangs on the glass screaming with gutteral howls "My baby! Please don't take my baby!" before collapsing into a heap. Berry, despite some recent poor script and genre choices, proved herself in this film, winning a well-deserved Oscar as Best Actress in a Leading Role against such contenders as former winners Sissy Spacek and Judi Dench. Berry's performance ranks among the best in recent memory.

Excellent acting and good writing make this film easily one of the finest of the last few years.

Halle berry gives an amazing performance and deserved her oscar in this drama.Forget what bad things people say about this movie because they don't know good drama's halle has proved again she is a execllent actress.Buy this I promise you that you won't be sorry you bought it go halle WOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!my favorite actress !!! read all the good reviews of this there are more good then bad trust me alot more good!

There were moments where this film interested me, but otherwise I found myself wondering why Halle got an Oscar for this role, or more importantaly-- why this film was so acclaimed. After watching the credits role I decided it was because of the sex scene; "taboo" lust, if you will. The plot was weak and the ending left me hanging.

This was a horrible movie. The plot was simplitic at best.It was going all over the place. None of it made sense. Halle Berry is a one note actress at best. Is it just me or does she play the same part in every movie. She needs to stick to playing crack heads like she did in some of her earlier movies and then at least you see some dimension in her performance. I have talked to atleast twenty people who have seen this movie and did not understand it. Whoever directed this fluff should have lemon juice squeezed in his eye. I am not hating on the sex scene in this movie... After all that's what she got the oscar for.

This is a frustrating movie in many ways. It is indeed difficult to watch, as other reviewers have pointed out (though it is supposed to be). But it is also a missed opportunity. With so many contemporary movies filled with formulaic plots and inane dialogue, with happy endings and feel-good messages either overt or lurking beneath superficial complications, this is a movie that appears to have promise. I'd even say that it's a movie that I wanted to succeed.

But alas, it doesn't. Monster's Ball is about two flawed characters who need each other due to tragedies they both suffer in the first half of the film. There is no romance at the birth of their relationship, only symbiosis. OK so far. But for the premise to effect any emotion in the viewer, the movie must be plausible. I realize the plot is not the most important thing in this movie, but its reliance on coincidence is heavier than Halle Berry's kid. (**Warning, spoiler to follow.**) And I spent too much time sighing or laughing out loud over ridiculous scences such as the one involving the death of Berry's son in the hospital to feel anything for these characters. The lack of believability dilutes the power that the perfomances of the leads could have provided. And that's ashame, because the acting is really good for the most part (except for P. Diddy's blah performance -- I'm not sure why movie critics out there have praised the job he did in this).

One other complaint: is it just me or does Halle Berry look conspicuously white on the cover of this movie? (She sure doesn't look like that on screen.) You know, here's a movie about a rather unpleasant fellow (racism being one of his flaws) whose improvement as a human being is tied to his relationship with a black woman. Yet with prospective viwers likely knowing they'll get to see Berry naked, the distributor picked a picture of her that makes her look as if she's, well, not that black. Cynical? Or am I reading into that too much?

Honestly, there aren't enough to words to describe how bad Monster's Ball is, and how undeserving of an Oscar that hack Halle Berry was. Terrible acting, half-hearted plot, a white knight rushing in to save the po' nigra woman - and let's not get started on how a born-and-bred racist can change in about 48 hours, all because he had sex with a black woman. PLEASE! There was a black woman who deserved an Oscar nod for her riveting role in a movie that year, all right - her name was Nona Gaye, and she was magnificent in "Ali." But why award a black woman playing a strong, dignified role that required actual acting skills when we can give it to someone engaging in shrieking, crying, and raw sex (and UNNEEDED raw sex) at that? Hey, is it possible to give this movie zero stars?

This film is dramatic, tragic, and all out depressing. But the acting is what steals the show. Halle Barry deserved the Oscar, and the film will be remembered. Not the best. If you are in the mood for happiness, skip this film.