Monster's Ball

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</div> </tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <div> <TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="1" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="579" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 20 WIDTH="575"><div> <B>Monster's Ball  </B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#FFCC66" FACE="Wingdings 2" ><B>êêê</B></FONT><B>1/2  </B> ( R ) </div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 19 WIDTH="575"><div> Reviewed By George O. Singleton</div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 19 WIDTH="575"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="19" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="575" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 20 WIDTH="575"><div> <I><B>Back Stabber</B></I><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#FFCC66" FACE="Symbol" ><B>¾</B></FONT><B>they're smiling in your face</B></div> </tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="1" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="580" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 19 ><NOBR><div> Hank Grotowski: Billy Bob Thornton</div> </NOBR></tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP><NOBR><div> Leticia Musgrove: Halle Berry</div> </NOBR></tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 19 WIDTH="299"><div> Buck Grotowski: Peter Boyle</div> </tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP><NOBR><div> Sonny Grotowski: Heath Ledger</div> </NOBR></tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 19 ><NOBR><div> Lawrence Musgrove: Sean "Puffy" Combs</div> </NOBR></tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP><NOBR><div> Ryrus: Mos Def (Dante Beze)</div> </NOBR></tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 19 ><NOBR><div> Tyrell Musgrove: Cornoji Calhoun</div> </NOBR></tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="274"><div> Lucille: Taylor Simpson</div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 19 WIDTH="299"><div> Vera: Amber Rules</div> </tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="274"><div> Director: Marc Forster</div> </tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <div> <B>30 Second Bottom Line</B>: A prison guard, who serves as executioner, inadvertently becomes romantically and emotionally involved with the wife of a man he electrocuted. They both carry some heavy emotional baggage, which results in a complex tale as recognition and realization set in.    </div> <bR> <div> <B>Story Line:</B> <I><B>Monster's Ball</B></I> refers to the "celebration" that is observed the last night before a person on death row will have their execution carried out. Leticia (Halle Berry) is a single mother who clearly does not have it all together, her rusting out car fires spark plugs that miss more beats than they hit. Her overweight son Tyrell (Cornoji Calhoun) gets his love from continuously stuffing his face with food. His physically attractive mother is hard to take as you look beneath her beauty and see ignorance and alcoholism. Leticia's husband Lawrence (Sean "Puffy" Combs) is on death row about to be executed. She takes Tyrell for his last visit with his father and this dysfunctional family of three say their good byes and Lawrence tells his son that although he's a "bad man," Tyrell represents all that is good and more in him.  </div> <bR> <div> The executioners are on hand at Lawrence's cell that night. Hank Grotowski (Billy Bob Thornton) is training his son, Sonny (Heath Ledger), a rookie guard on death row, to efficiently pull the lever for the electric chair, as Hank's father Buck had trained him…a real family tradition. Both Hank and Sonny live at home with Buck (Peter Boyle), a retired prison officer who spends most of his time in a wheelchair or an easy chair in front of the TV. </div> <bR> <div> Sonny is less than happy, as evidenced by the strained relationship with his father at the prison and his <I>wham-bam</I> sexual liaison with Vera (Amber Rules) in one of the early scenes in the movie. Sonny is also friendly with Ryrus (Mos Def) and his two young sons, who are chased off the property by Hank and Buck as unwelcome black trespassers, although they are neighbors. Buck is a bigoted old man that sees blacks as something other than being created in the image of all men being equal. Hank is civil to his black co-workers and appears to be a fair supervisor of both his black and white subordinates; yet outside of work, his hostility against blacks is barely contained. With Hank, Buck and Sonny all living in the same house, there can be no doubt that trouble is brewing as each generation represents very different thinking when it comes to matters of race.</div> <bR> <div> Leticia on the other hand is trying to deal with the loss of her husband and the eviction notice that has been posted at her rundown home. She's usually late for work at a black owned restaurant where she is a waitress and eventually the owner tells her she's been<I> replaced</I>. Hank's routine is to stop at another local diner for chocolate ice cream, which he eats with a white plastic spoon. Leticia takes over while the regular waitress Lucille (Taylor Simpson) is out for personal reasons, and Hank and Leticia for the first time are truly face to face. She's nervous about doing a good job and he just wants what he wants and making a lasting impression on an attractive black woman by leaving a nice tip is the last thing on his mind.</div> <bR> <div> Over time Hank comes to recognize Leticia and when she needs help, he comes to her aid. Both are broken souls with what appears to be little in common other than a need for human kindness and compassion. A weak moment can lead to a fit of passion that makes one wonder why you did what you did last night and conclude that now that you have that out of your system, you can step back and do something that has better long term results. Can neediness and passion lead to true love?</div> <bR> <div> <B>Tell Me More About It</B>: This film pushes a lot of buttons. How you react to it depends on a variety of personal factors. At a time when America stands more united than since WW II (see <I><B>Hart's War</B></I> and <I><B>Men of Honor)</B></I>, some of the bilge of raw racism has been replaced with less sinister but still widely prevalent code words. Subtle classism and racism designed to keep the non-country club set in their place. </div> <bR> <div> While many film critics are focusing on the relationship between Hank and Leticia, the true story in the film is about the three generations of Grotowski's and how their view of race has changed, less by personal experience and personal enlightenment but rather because society has changed around them. Buck is a dyed in the wool "Bull Connor" racist (Police chief Bull Connor turned fire hoses and dogs on civil rights demonstrators in Birmingham in 1963). Given the edginess of this film, Buck clearly <I>under</I> reacts when he was placed in a nursing home with a "porch monkey" (another of his terms for n-----) as a roommate. This is a man who is proud of his hatred for blacks as he tells Hank that his "…mother hated them too."</div> <bR> <div> Buck shows how ugly racism is without the need for lynching. His substitution is to create a scrapbook of executions, through which he and now his son and grandson are able to carry on the family tradition. Buck understands that most of the folks who will become "dead men walking" are black men and considers that the new form of lynching. It's the current way of keeping them in their place. That however, does not stop him from having a view of black women as</div> <div> "n----- juice"<FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#FFCC66" FACE="Symbol" >--</FONT>a white man's right of passion to manhood<FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#FFCC66" FACE="Symbol" >--</FONT>"you ain't a man till you split dark coal."</div> <bR> <div> Halle Berry's performance here is clearly Oscar caliber work, though I've always felt aware of her acting technique to show range. This might be more on me than her as most of the roles she's been in combined with her dazzling beauty make it hard to think of her as getting down, dirty and funky for a role that asks for everything you have to give. When I think back to her debut-acting role as a crack addict with Samuel L. Jackson in Spike Lee's <I>Jungle Fever</I>, it's not much of a stretch to see her in this role, especially with some experience under her belt. </div> <bR> <div> Without doubt, Billy Bob Thornton has turned in the best <I>overall </I>acting work this year, because of outstanding performances not only in this film, but <I><B>Bandits</B></I> and <I><B>The Man Who Wasn't There. </B></I>That said, Denzel in <I><B>Training Day</B></I> and Russell Crowe in <I><B>A Beautiful Mind</B></I> are my top picks for best actor as giving a truly knock out performance in a single film.</div> <bR> <div> The supporting roles in <I><B>Monster's Ball</B></I> are not on par with those in <I><B>Gosford Park,</B></I> but they are in the same league. Sonny has graduated from the overt racism of his grandfather and the just below the surface racism of his dad. Vera seems to be what she really is<FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#FFCC66" FACE="Symbol" >-</FONT>a slam bam thank you m'am<FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#FFCC66" FACE="Symbol" >-</FONT>who thinks nothing of playing doggie with both father and son in the local motel (not at the same time). She sets the tone for the low life stance that Leticia takes. Ryrus is the black man who stands his ground in the new south. The relationship he has with Hank gives the story it's real edginess because I think this is how a lot of people truly regard one another. </div> <bR> <div> Tyrell is a child who is made fun of in school because of being overweight. His mother often says the right things even though she is uneducated and often in a drug induced haze. Letecia has the potential to be a good mom. There really is something to mothers who have done almost everything wrong but with the right break, can get it together and become a responsible parent.</div> <bR> <div> The violent deaths of two people in Hank's immediate family bring about his transformation, which allows a close relationship to develop with Leticia. It also opens the door for Hank and Ryrus to do business together. While my observations of what people from small towns might do when they make a major transformation are not "expert opinion," when you undergo a metamorphosis, there may be too many bad memories and old relationships that will be impossible or extremely difficult to resolve.   </div> <bR> <div> If there is anything that might hurt <I><B>Monster's Ball</B></I>, it's the hype and high expectations, and the frank way it deals with race in America today. Because the film is entertaining while it deals with numerous serious issues such as racism, capital punishment, self-determination, and the ability to "get over it," it manages to escape being a message film but rather one of enlightenment.  More than anything else, what I enjoy about this film is being able to have some of America's touchiest topics addressed in a way that is not too painful to watch.</div> <bR> <div> <TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="1" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="621" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 19 WIDTH="617"><div> Rated R for strong sexual content, language and violence</div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 19 WIDTH="617"><div> George O. Singleton © 2002</div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 19 WIDTH="617"><div> <A HREF="mailto:Reelmoviec@aol.com" TARGET="_top" TITLE="mailto:Reelmoviec@aol.com"><U><U>George@reelmoviecritic.com</U></U></A></div> </tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <div> Mini Filmography </div> <div> <TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="1" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="579" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 38 WIDTH="286"><div> Billy Bob Thornton: <I><B>Man Who Wasn't There, The</B></I></div> </tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="286"><div> Halle Berry: <I><B>Bond 20</B></I></div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 20 WIDTH="286"><div> Peter Boyle: <I><B>Pluto Nash</B></I></div> </tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP><NOBR><div> Heath Ledger: <B>Knights Tale, A</B></div> </NOBR></tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 19 WIDTH="286"><div> Sean "Puffy" Combs: <I><B>Made</B></I></div> </tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="286"><div> Mos Def : <I><B>Showtime</B></I></div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 19 ><NOBR><div> Marc Forster: <I><B>Everything Put Together</B></I></div> </NOBR></tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="286"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="19" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="286" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>