I just say it yesterday. What an odd movie. Good and tough all at once.
SPOLIERS
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some random thoughts:
I think I liked it overall more for the characters than the story. Sonny’s (Ledger) suicide was really surprising, big visual impact there. I thought that Halle Berry was really good in this. (that scene on the couch/floor didn’t hurt any, either. ) I wasn’t very impressed with Puffy, but I hate him anyway so it’s hard to tell if I’m giving him a fair shake. I thought that Mos Def did a good job with his small role, it was interesting to hear him talking with a southern accent. Watching Leticia (Berry) act as the “mother” to the fat kid was tough – She was such a bitch! The Buck character was ok, not great but not bad. I guess it isn’t hard to make people not like you by being the racist. I would have rolled his old ass out the front door and not even bothered with a home for him after his exchange with Leticia.
Also, at the end, after he gets home and she had found Lawrence’s drawings, I thought she was gonna go apeshit and shoot him or something. it was a weird transition into “I think we’re gonna be just fine…”
The music was REALLY good. Reminded me of Traffic’s soundtrack.
I’m interested to hear other thoughts on this movie.
I saw it a few weeks ago, and had much the same impression of the ending as you did.
I kept waiting for her to haul off and hit him as he ate the ice cream. Then he says the “just fine” line, credits roll…huh? It seemed like there was something left unresolved. Very odd.
I think Puffy did pretty well. I certainly liked his acting much better than I like his music. So it was more of a pleasant impression than I might have otherwise had.
I feel really weird admitting this, but this movie made me realize that I find Billy Bob Thornton strangely attractive. I’m not sure what it is about him, but I apparently like it. Not enough to shack up & marry the guy like Angelina Jolie did, but my loins were strangely awakened.
I think overall I enjoyed the movie. My SO really liked it. Lots of family dysfunction in the movie, though, so if you’re turned off by that, shoot, just save your money!
I thought it was a very powerful and well crafted movie. I also agree that Sonny’s suicide was a moment of startling impact. One of the most difficult targets of screenwriting is creating develoments that are both surprising and grow organically from the situations preceding them: this fim could be used as a case study in how to do it right.
I do not see the ending as “unresolved” at all: the resolution is the truth that she was able to accept the revelation without “freaking out”. The movie is the story of how these two people made it to the point where they could sit on the step, eat ice cream, look at the stars, and think, “We’re gonna be all right.”
A lesser movie would have had her blow up (again).
There would have been melodrama.
He would have to overcome an external obstacle and “prove his love”.
There would have been a touching and tearful reconciliation.
Hopeful music would swell and credits would roll over a scene of unambiguous happiness and contentment.
Monstaer’s Ball did it differently. It did it right. And it earned it’s ending.
Overall, I thought the movie was good. Specific items:
Halle Berry – WOW! Who’d have thought she could actually ACT? (Especially after the el stinko job she did in ‘X-Men’.) She did a fantastic job.
Billy Bob – scout, my sister had exactly the same reaction. Her sitting there moaning every time he came on screen was getting a little distracting.
Sean Combs – He surprised the hell out of me. For the relatively small amount of screen time he had, he did great. I don’t like him much myself, based on his public persona, but I have to admit he did a near-flawless job.
The movie in general – I really liked how the movie went out of its way to show people the way they really are. No makeup, no clever lighting tricks to make everyone look beautiful – you see them at their worst, physically and emotionally.
I thought the plotting was a little overly slow, but the acting jobs done by all the principal actors more than made up for the movie’s slowness.
SPOILER
And I was also strangely unfulfilled at the end - was she able to forgive Billy Bob for his role in Lawrence’s death, or did she simply stay with him because she felt trapped? Maybe it’s because I’m anal-retentive, but I was hoping for a little more closure than that.
What? Monster’s Ball isn’t the NC-17 sequel to Monsters Inc.?
Seriously, I haven’t seen it yet–but I’ve known Halle coould act ever since Losing Isaiah.
On the whole I liked it, but it was very contrived. I kept wondering why Leticia was in that little town in the first place, and what kept her there before she met Billy Bob. She certainly didn’t have any love for her ex, so why hadn’t she gone to a bigger city where there were better prospects, or at least better paying waitressing jobs? Further, why didn’t she have any support system (ie family, friends) before she met Billy Bob? It all felt contrived to force her and Billy Bob together, which was the point of the movie, I know, but it didn’t ring very true to me.
Halle Berry was surprisingly good- I never thought she could act at all. And yet…
I had the same problem with her that I had with Michelle Pfeiffer in “Frankie and Johnny.” That is, even though her performance was good, it was almost impossible to forget that this was a glamorous, beautiful woman trying to pass herself off as a working stiff. And no matter how hard Michelle tried, I couldn’t buy her as a lonely, unattractive waitress at a dingy diner. It was obvious that she was a gorgeous woman who could do much better than a dishwasher like Pacino.
Similarly, it’s VERY difficult to suspend disbelief and pretend that Halle Berry isn’t a glamorous, beautiful movie star, even when she dresses down. A less attractive woman might have been better suited to the role.
I was completely surprised by this movie. I expected the relationship between Thornton’s and Berry’s characters to be more predator/prey. The movie was a lot slower than I would have guessed, which turned out to be a good thing. I can’t believe Peter Boyle still has the chops to do drama.
I took the theme to be that we’re all at the monster’s ball, condemned to die, so we may as well make the most of what’s here. And I guess making the most of what’s here wasn’t strictly a selfish matter in the movie, or in life. Which one was Mos’ Def? The mechanic?
I echo the “it was too contrived” sentiments that others have posted. I think that the deaths of both characters’ sons as plot devices and nothing more was sort of lame.
My real gripe, however, is in another totally different direction. I was extremely disturbed by the child abuse scene where Leticia was berating her son for being fat, calling him piggy, grabbing at his fat rolls, forcing him on the scale, etc. Yes, yes…I know it’s just acting. But this is a child. There’s nothing in this world that can convince me that that child didn’t go home and cry every night after shooting that scene. That he didn’t take every word to heart, even though it was “just acting”. That playing that part had no effect whatsoever on his self-esteem.
I can’t help but think that there could have been some other way to show Leticia as a bad mother besides inflicting that sort of abuse on a child, just for the sake of the movie.
Thank you! That role was originally played on Broadway by KATHY BATES! Argh!! Hollywood is so full of shit sometimes…
And ** Jadis, ** Berry has said that she felt terrible doing those scenes with that kid, who isn’t even a professional actor. After every take she was apologizing to him and fussing over him, she felt rotten. She found out later that he’s now the star of his school and happy as a clam, all the kids are jealous that he got to hang with her, so it worked out ok.
Although, as a fat person myself, and a fat kid, I don’t know that any amount of fame would have been worth doing that.
