Monster’s Ball | Review

Monster’s Ball has more filmmaking don’ts than do’s.

You’ve seen this one before, – the very evil man who turns into the good Samaritan and the woman working hard for her money living on 8-cent tips from her waitress job in a diner. On one part we have the white boy from the south correction’s officer who is a little too liberal with his speech- let’s just say that some of his sentences end with or begin with the N word while at the other end of the scale we have another clichéd story of the mono-parental woman struggling to keep her life together and making abetter one for deep-fried chicken eating son. With these plots knotted together we have the makings of the classic Hollywood film with all the trimmings- Indie hit Monster’s Ball is tragically just another example of a film that contains poor story development and the implausible character motivation that makes one grimace while watching the details unfold.

Director Marc Foster antes up the viewer’s deep sense of frustration at the very moment in which the picture introduces the words ‘deeply departed’. The expression when the s*it hits the fan quite literally takes place in a series of deaths-and this is done in such a way that it becomes quite the task to feel any kind of sympathy for those characters who remain in the picture- especially when their actions make very little sense. Billy Bob’s character suddenly become the Mister Rodger’s of the neighbourhood and quite miraculously finds it within him to care about his only son who happens to be six feet under. Another 180-degree turn occurs the female protagonist of the film played by Halle Berry whose performance isn’t as gripping as critics seem to think. She delivers as the no-make up, evicted from her home, single parent with a phoney accent who simply can’t manage a two-week waitress job to save her life. Her death row husband played by Sean Puff Daddy Combs is horrible at acting and thankfully his character gets the chair and spares us from his annoying performance while up and coming Heath Ledger’s screen presence is as long as porn-flick money shot.

The story simple does not jive well with the first half, too much coincidental circumstances, too many character’s actions that make little sense, – the fact that the female protagonist should be in mourning or at least grieving we see her back on her feet bussing tables and that the male protagonist is into buying gas stations shows the little concern that Foster has for exploring issues with a deeper significance. The finale is a real joke; we have one going into hysterics after uncovering the unsurprising connection between current beau and boyfriend behind bars. But rather than bringing it up as an issue-it is tossed aside for a beautiful pan up into the sky shot. Perhaps Monster’s Ball could have focused a little more on their personal torments rather than the speedy up the picture for the bizarre romance.

Rating 1 stars