What a disturbing, powerful movie.
First off, Charlize Theron’s performance is one of the best I’ve ever seen any actor pull off. In fact, don’t even go into this thing expecting to even SEE Charlize Theron, because for all intents and purposes, she doesn’t even exist in this movie, as her persona is entirely overtaken by that of Aileen, a serial murder who was just executed in Fall of 2002. It’s unfortunate that the same can’t be said of Christina Ricci, who does pull off a good performance… unfortunately, it’s More Of The Same for her part.
The movie has some flaws, and pretty significant ones. The first act is pretty slow, and filled with some terribly cheap, really shmaltzy moments that will make you cringe. Please, for the love of god, I beg you… if you’re gonna see this movie, sit through those bad moments. Even as the hair on the back of your neck stands on end, don’t walk out of the movie… because this movie has some amazingly excellent points, and when it’s good, it’s REALLY goddamned fucking good.
What we get to witness is, in essence, the final steps of a total mental and emotional breakdown of a woman that has been beaten and battered by a really shitty life. By the time the movie catches up to her, she is so far beyond hope that it’s nauseating.
For instance… during one particularly, cheesy, corny “cute” scene in a roller rink, I found myself suppressing a gag, but I told myself, “I can appreciate this terrible scene, if only for the dichotomy, if the movie makes the twist implied by the opening scene”. And I wasn’t disappointed… shortly thereafter, we’re treated to a terribly brutal scene in which Aileen is attacked by one of her clients, tied up, and all sorts of painful horrible things happen to her. She manages to escape and extract vengeance, but her screams of agony, anguish, and terror are gonna cut you to the quick.
The music in this film is also painfully cheesy, but again, withstand that poor decision. The movie soon descends from one brutally powerful scene after another, with the shmaltz getting less and less prevalent, until we’re finally left with Aileen’s final murder that really, really hurts to see… in the good way, that is, since it’s so terribly shocking to see this character, who I once sympathized with, live up to the movie’s title.
If you can tolerate unnecessary and annoying cheesiness and really focus on the excellent scenes in a film, then go see this. However, if you’re the type that needs a movie to be consistently good, you’re gonna complain… but I think this movie is definitely worth seeing, just so you can witness Theron’s performance. It’s very rare for us to get to see an actor lose him or herself so much in a role.