“Monster’s Ball” (USA 2002) ****
Directed by Marc Forster
If not for anything else, “Monster’s Ball” should be viewed for two brilliantly executed scenes – one the most dramatic witnessed by this reviewer this millennium and the other, a very long stretched-out (almost 5 minutes) uncomfortable, non-erotic sex act between the two leads. This could teach many a filmmaker a thing or two on how performances, effective dialogue and carefully planned incidents combined together can work up to spectacular impact. The sex scene ran into censorship difficulties in some parts of the U.S.
“Monster’s Ball” is ambitious in its subject matter. Basically, a rare drama about loss, redemption and finally love as told through the intersecting lives of the protagonists, it deals with three generations of Corrections Officers, Hank (Billy Bob Thornton), aging father Buck (Peter Boyle) and son Sonny (Heath Ledger). They are family (as Buck keeps reminding Hank) though they might as well not be. Hank loves neither. Complications arise when Hank comes to the aid of Leticia (Halle Berry), a black woman, whose son, Tyrell (Coronji Calhoun) just got hit by a car. The poster caption reads “a lifetime can be changed in a moment” and the rest of the film aims at demonstrating it.
Milo Addica and Will Roko’s script is clever enough to recognize that more often than not, more can be told through silence and incidents than dialogue. A lot can be read from Hank’s disposition the way he eats a scoop of chocolate ice-cream with a plastic spoon or about Leticia’s current situation the way she freaks out at the obese Tyrell when discovering a stash of hidden chocolate bars.
Unlike the similar drama currently playing, “In the Bedroom” – both films have the sons violently killed off at the start – this film is driven by unpredictable incidents and lots of them. Within the first fifteen minutes, there are three deaths, three confrontations and two fights. Yet, the two leads have still to meet. The script puts similarities and opposites to the characters of Hank and Leticia. Hank is quiet, brooding and has just lost the son he despises. Leticia, on the other hand is loud and verbal but too, has just lost her son. Both need human companionship. Both need love. The question is, can these two significantly different natures (not to mention the racial aspect) come together?
A lot of weight therefore falls on the performances of Thornton and Berry. But the script allows Thornton to play scared and lonely, traumatized and neurotic, unloved and loving – which he succeeds remarkably well. Berry is required to play a poverty –stricken mother but her slim, model-features (perfect hair, teeth, face) work against her favor. Yet, in one pivotal scene, she induces the viewer to laugh and cry at the same time. The last time such an actor managed this feat, he (Richard Dreyfuss of “The Goodbye Girl” – the dressing room scene, with him crying after realizing his performance as a homosexual and limp Hamlet was a dud) was awarded the Academy Award. Heath Ledger {“A Knight’s Tale” and “The Patriot”) and Peter Boyle both have only a handful of lines, but they get their messages across dramatically.
Like the dialogue, music is used sparingly, if hardly at all. Forster does not rely on music to set the mood of a scene, but rather to enhance it. In the diner encounter where Berry and Thornton share a quiet moment, the background music, though pleasant, is barely audible.
Unsurprisingly, Robert de Niro and Tommy Lee Jones are reported to have shown interest in the Thornton role and many black actresses coveted Berry’s role. Yet, this small (lower-budget) movie succeeds admirably. Berry and Thornton are excellent – perfect vehicles for a script that allows the actors to demonstrate their best. Director Forster (“Loungers” and “Everything Put Together”) recognizes the expository nature of the film and like many a good director directs rather than dictates. The result is a rather disturbing film, but one that demands to be seen.
