Monsters Ball

This film drama begins in a dark mood and struggles in vain during several plot twists in its latter half to achieve lightness. The story line is launched by the electric chair execution of an African American man in a Southern state penitentiary. The lives in two families are affected and ultimately become entangled as a result of his death. Three correctional officers are in one family and the wife and son of the executed man are in the other.

Billy Bob Thornton plays Hank, a correctional officer whose father and son are also both correctional officers. Halle Berry plays Leticia the wife of the executed man. Some barely believable serendipity throws them together. A relationship develops. Of course the fact that she is scantily dressed, distressed, in desperate need and gorgeously beautiful helps.

I thought the second half of the film, which involved the relationship between these two characters made sense and moved quite well, albeit problematic. A dramatic change in Hanks character made this possible, but it was difficult to accept this change in light of his previous personality. A transformation in such a basic deep-seated psychology requires time, even in the face of a traumatic event. For this reason, his character seemed inconsistent.

Marc Forster directed the film. It is his third effort since 1990 when he arrived in the US from Germany to study filmmaking.

Thornton began as a singer and rock-and-roll drummer in Arkansas. His film career began in 1987. I was impressed by his performance as Karl Childer in Sling Blade (1996) for which he received an Academy Award nomination. He has been in many films but I particularly liked his work in Bandits (2001). Thornton has an interesting phobia, antique furniture.

Berry, who was named after the Halle department store in Cleveland, Ohio, was born in the same hospital as Dorothy Dandridge. Her life and career has been a win-win. She won Miss Teen All-American (1985), Miss Ohio USA (1986) and then Miss USA first runner up. She is the first African American actress to win a best actress Oscar for this film and she was voted one of the beautiful people by People Magazine (2002). I liked her in Bulworth (1998), and as Storm in X-Men (2000).

I believe this film was intended to explore miscegenation and indeed it did. I was particularly impressed with Leticias reaction to events toward the end of the story and Berrys portrayal of them. However, Hanks character seemed to disappear except in relation to Leticia and was less believable as a result.

What I found missing was the rest of the Southern town and its reaction to this development. In fact the towns population seemed inexplicably sparse through most of the film. If I had read my own review, I probably would not have watched the film.

Reviewed April 17, 2003