- Take a pot shot but be warned.
Intricate montage and subtle
colours, accommodated by a peculiar score, in the opening credit
sequence, emphasise the tone for the entire movie: phoniness. It
dawned on me after viewing that I had witnessed an emotionally
arresting story but which ultimately does not have the ring of
truth or credibility. .
Monster’s Ball is hollow and does not
resonant after you leave the theatre.
While watching this Southern drama of sexism
and racism, and is essentially a taboo love story between a man
and a woman at crisis points in their lives, set in a socially
and politically conservative environment, I was enthralled by
Billy Bob Thornton and Halle Berry’s characterisations as the
couple who embark on an affair of the heart: Halle Berry as
Leticia lets her guard down with Thornton, intimate moments
follow surprising sexual frankness where Berry says in
exasperation, “I want to feel good” and Thornton replies, while
providing a cathartic sex manoeuvre, “do you feel good?” That’s
quite funny although unintentional.
For up close and personal drama it is pretty
good comedy (better than Berry’s Oscar acceptance speech) and
there are other unconvincing moments like these.
It is frustrating for something that seems
like it wants to be “realistic”, with robust and husky
characters, at once weak and powerful, including raw depictions
of sex, complimenting distressing scenarios of the death penalty
and inter-generational bigotry that Monster’s Ball does
not fit the bill.
However, there are a couple of powerful set
pieces, showcasing the leads, and supporting performers Sean
Combs and young actor Coronji Calhoun as Comb’s father. Peter
Boyle does well too as Thornton’s character’s racist father. The
feeling and nuance behind these few sequences are heartbreaking
and disturbing.
What is really memorable is Billy Bob
Thornton. He plays an unlikeable character but one who
ironically garners the trust of Leticia because of his pseudo
redemption, however unnatural this seems. He is superb at subtly
and ambiguity. It is a pity he was ignored at the Oscars,
because 2001 was his year.
All the same, Monster’s Ball, for all
its heart-in-the-right place sensibilities about the role of the
death penalty and the place of accepting another person of a
different coloured skin, and in finding the soul’s redemption in
a milieu of despair and depravity, this is nevertheless forced
and contrived in its execution, I never went along in believing
in these characters so I couldn’t empathise with them.
Confronting
difficult issues of racial prejudice in the southern United
States, MONSTER'S BALL focuses on a prison where a white
father and son (Billy Bob Thornton and Heath Ledger) are
both employed. A black death row inmate (Sean Combs)
receives frequent visits from his wife (Halle Berry), and
eventually, the white father begins to fall in love with the
black wife, bringing both confusion and new ideas to the
fore. 
