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Monster's Ball (2001)
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Movie Review by Bobby B 
February 3rd, 2008
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Monstrous Ball of...
This is a ridiculous movie. The plot is offensive and the casting of Halle Berry borders on preposterous. Not that she's such a bad actress, she's not. But there are some things that can't be faked. Trying to sell Berry as a poor, Southern wife of a man who's been on death row for eleven years while she's been trying to raise their son by herself... I mean, c'mon. And then her son dies??? Berry just doesn't have that kind of mileage on her face, on her body, and frankly, she doesn't have the chops. Without make up, which is what they do to de-glamorize her, Berry still looks like a gorgeous, eighteen-year-old, super model. The famed (or infamous) sex scene that should be about two people at the end of their rope looking for any kind of connection with another human being becomes about well, something else. I mean, goddamn, it's Halle Berry, you know what I'm sayin'? When she's ripping off her shirt the audience knows why Billy Bob Thornton wants to f*ck her and loneliness or suffering or desperate, fundamental need has nothing to do with it. Well, not that kind of need. And without that the whole movie falls apart.
It was off to a bad start anyway. The story, about a profoundly unhappy, racist prison guard responsible for the execution Berry's husband (Sean Combs) who then unknowingly meets her and finds redemption through her, is clunky to say the least. She, as well, is supposed find a new lease on life in him, the most unlikely of places -- even after she finds out that he's the one who killed her husband. Riiiiiiiggghhhhtt. Okay, okay, it's not impossible, desperate people do desperate things -- but it's a leap. And Berry can't make me buy it. Even Billy Bob Thornton, a wonderfully versatile and forceful presence in any film he's in, can't make this implausible story go down smoothly. Peter Boyle, another fine actor, with an illustrious career behind him, is terrible. He plays Thornton's rabidly racist and rather pathetic father and if it's possible to mail it in playing such a character, he somehow manages it. There's not a trace of humanity in anything he does. And there needs to be. Without it there's another beam gone in an already flimsy structure. Here, you have Halle Berry woefully miscast, Peter Boyle stinking up the joint, Sean Combs having no screen presence whatsoever and Billy Bob Thornton floundering around helplessly trying to make a bad film work. It ain't gonna happen.
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 | Tim
Feb 3, 2008 4:48 PM
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Man....surprised you didnt like this one. If you watch the special features on the DVD it talks specifically how the filmmakers DID NOT want Halle Berry for this role. The said the same thing, Halle Berry is too pretty to be a poor southern woman.
But they said when she came into the studios for an interview that she brought up a good point......Have you never seen an attractive poor person? Now still as the audience we know thats not the truth but its the same thing with Charlize Theron in Monster.....Theron is beautiful but they made her look like a man........Berry looks good with her clothes off in Monsters Ball but the rest of the film I think they did a great job of making her not look like Halle Berry. |
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Feb 4, 2008 3:33 AM
Feb 4, 2008 4:08 AM
I agree that Angela Bassett would have been great. Im agree also that Halle Berry is no Charlize Theron but what I was trying to say is that they did the best that they could do with Halle.....and Im sure they knew that her being in the film would get curious filmgoers to see it just because of the sex scene.
What did you not like about the film. I thought the characters were all developed good and overall the performances were good. Plenty of nudity, sex, and drama. I could have done without P-Diddy...but even Mos Def was good.
Feb 4, 2008 4:24 AM
Feb 4, 2008 4:25 AM
Feb 4, 2008 4:20 PM
So I guess I see the film as a real look that people can change. For instance, my best friend is black and I have another good friend that is white but she was born to racist parents. So when I first met her she talked badly about black people because its how she was raised. Now she has eliminated all of racism issues but it took some people like me and others to change that negativity that was embeded in her.