Reaper
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More Filmski'sWell only one really as it's been very quiet this week....
Monsters Ball (2002)
An Oscar winner amongst other awards, promised by many to be a very poignant and emotional film, so why has it taken me this long to watch it? Sometimes it's best to let the hype around a film settle before you watch it otherwise it can suffer from the hype and be a disappointment, of course as time goes on other films come out and we get side tracked. So eventually I got around to watching this film and I was very surprised, I hadn't expect it to pull me into the story and hold my attention as much as it did. Monsters Ball is an emotional rollercoaster in it's own right though it does find it very hard to move out of the more negative feelings while it's aiming for redemption.
The main characters played by Billy Bob Thornton (at his most stolic) and Halle Berry would be completely unrelated except for convicts execution that Thornton watches over as he is a prison officer. This convict happens to be Berry's husband and his death leaves her and her young alone struggling to survive against America's tough financial climate.
The film takes a few unexpected turns particularly in relation to Thorntons son played by Heath Ledger (in a role that more than likely got him the part in Brokeback Mountain) and the effects these events have on Thorntons character.
Thornton is the epitomy of the deep American south stereotype, racist, unemotional, stuck in their ways and generally not nice to be around. However the major events of the film slowly have a positive effect on him and these are shown without some big moment of self-awareness but with a slow and patient move towards a better lifestyle.
The most surprising thing about the whole film is Halle Berry, this is the film she won an Oscar for, yes the same Halle Berry who starred in Catwoman, the same woman who for the most part can't seem to act her way out of a paper bag. And to a certain degree it's understandable, she is fairly good in this, the emotions are strong and clear and shes lucky in that there is a lot to work with. There are still better actresses out there but this is a good turn for her, and the real shame is that she hasn't really followed it up with anything of equal stature. Her role in X-Men doesn't seem to stretch her at all and Catwoman, well that's all we need to say.
Without her son though, Berrys character would have been far less interesting, through her son we see that Berry is a loving mother but that she is so emotionally over-burdened that she lashes out unexpectedly and shockingly, she is the pin up of the struggling parent living on the bread-line.
While I'll try not to spoil the ending of the film, I think it's important to note that one of the things I like most about Monsters Ball is that the ending stayed true to the feel of the latter half of the film. It would have been very easy to have built the characters so much and then let the last event pull them back ten steps (The event is fairly easy to guess at while watching the film). A lot of movies out there seem to be going for the bleak and disturbing ending and it's nice to be reminded that sometimes things don't turn out all that bad.
8/10
Also watched Monty Python and the Holy Grail..... We are the knights of the round table.... we dance whenever we're able!
Hopefully more films next week.
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