Monster (2003) - "Monster" is about Aileen Carol Wuornos (Charlize Theron), the real-life serial-killing prostitute. Wuornos was molested by her father as a child and was pregnant and prostituting herself by age 13. As an adult, she killed six of her "Johns" before being apprehended.
The movie, for the most part, is objective. It walks well the fine line between saying that Wuornos was a product of society and still holding her accountable for her own actions.
Still, the film has its faults. None of the police in the movie receive a sympathetic treatment, and all of the police and legal-types are white men. I understand the point it is trying to make, but the exaggeration hurts the film's credibility. A female cop somewhere in the film would have gone a long way to maintain fairness.
Charlize Theron's performance is amazing. The rest of the cast can't seem to keep up with her, but that may not be their fault. Theron deserves the Oscar.
"Monster" is a gutsy film. It doesn't offer up any answers to the complex social problems of society, it just reminds us that the problems are indeed complex; absolutely worth viewing.
The Hours (2002) - "The Hours" tells the stories of three different women simultaneously, interweaving their emotional experiences into a unified whole through the novel Mrs. Dalloway, by Virginia Woolf. Virginia Woolf (Nicole Kidman) is writing the novel in the 1920's as Laura Brown (Julianne Moore) is reading the novel in the 1950's as Clarrisa Vaughn (Merryl Streep) is seemingly living the events of the book in present-day New York.
All of the acting performances in this movie are terrific, especially the performances by Ed Harris (as Vaughn's former lover dying of AIDS) and Nicole Kidman. Where the film really stands out, however, is in the music and the editing. The two elements together help the viewer successfully navigate an otherwise seemingly, hopelessly jumbled series of events.
If "The Hours" has a weakness, it is that the message sort of gets lost in self-righteousness. The film is so complex and dramatic (perhaps excessively so) that it takes a lot of work to get out of it what you should: Life is what you make of it. Nonetheless, "The Hours" is a terrific film worthy of its acclaim.
S.W.A.T. (2003) - When an imprisoned drug lord offers a $100 million reward for anyone who can bust him out of jail, the city of Los Angeles is left with a problem only the Special Weapons and Tactics squad can handle. And they handle it with extremeness!
Colin Farrell and Samuel L. Jackson star in an action flick that is a colossal failure on all fronts. How talent like that decided 1) that the script had any redeeming value and 2) that the director had any redeeming brain cells is beyond me. The scenario of the movie is utterly absurd, and the director tries to emulate the Bruckheimer formula of "a team of hip, edgy specialists with an attitude." This is sort of like emulating Kurt Cobain.
The baffling thing is that this mass-audience pandering was written by men who brought us "Blow," "Training Day" and "American History X." I guess everyone needs a paycheck. You're going to need a S.W.A.T. team to rescue you from misery if you rent this movie.
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