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MONSTER’S
BALL
5/10
USA
2001 : Marc Forster : 111 mins
Anyone
expecting another zany instalment of Monsters
Inc will be in for a severe disappointment. Then again, anybody
hoping for the serious, classy adult drama suggested by the film’s poster,
reviews and Oscar success – Best Actress win for Berry, and an Original
Screenplay nomination – may also feel more than a little let down.
Hank
Grotowski (Billy Bob Thornton) is a death-row guard at Georgia State Penitentiary,
following in the footsteps of his father, Buck (Peter Boyle) – now retired,
a semi-invalid embittered racist. The taciturn Hank is a creature of habit
and ordered routine, visiting the same coffee-shop every night where he
eats ice-cream with a plastic spoon. He gets friendly with waitresses
Leticia (Halle Berry) whose husband Lawrence (rap magnate Sean ‘Puffy’
Combs) is one of the condemned men awaiting execution – though neither
Hank nor Leticia are aware of the connection. But after both are rocked
by tragic events, they find themselves falling into an unexpected, intimate
relationship…
Monster’s
Ball is so full of twists and turns – one of them shatteringly sudden
– it’s best not to know too much about the plot beforehand. But the calamities
pile up so quickly and so severely that plausibility flies straight out
the window, tipping what should be a very downbeat, mature tale into a
kind of morbid psychological slapstick. It’s really a terrible, confusing,
pretentious script, given unwarranted class by the poetic visual flair
of Forster’s restrained direction and some committed performances. Berry
is mostly OK in a very showy role, faring best when sharing the screen
in the steamy later scenes with the ever-remarkable Thornton.
20th
May, 2002
(seen 8th February, Cinemaxx Berlin – Berlin
Film Festival. Click here for initial
review)
This film
appeared in the Fipresci Selection 2001-2002 : click
here for full list
by Neil
Young
Buy Monster's Ball on DVD
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