Monster (2003) is an unflinching, raw, and haunting true-crime drama that shattered expectations and cemented Charlize Theron’s place among the bravest actors of her generation. Directed by Patty Jenkins in her feature debut, the film dives deep into the tragic life of Aileen Wuornos — a real-life sex worker who was executed in 2002 after being convicted of killing seven men in Florida between 1989 and 1990.
Theron’s Oscar-winning transformation into Wuornos is still regarded as one of cinema’s most astonishing performances. Disappearing beneath prosthetics, weight gain, and a mannerism-heavy physicality, she delivers not just a physical mimicry but a soul-crushing embodiment of a woman battered by abuse, poverty, and a lifetime of being unseen by society.
Monster refuses to paint Wuornos as a simple monster or martyr. Instead, Jenkins’s compassionate yet unsparing lens reveals a deeply damaged woman teetering between desperate dreams of escape and the harsh reality of a world that never offered her a fair chance. The film centers on Aileen’s relationship with Selby Wall (Christina Ricci, portraying a fictionalized version of Wuornos’s real-life girlfriend), a lonely young woman who falls into a turbulent, co-dependent romance that both fuels Aileen’s fragile hope and accelerates her tragic spiral.
What makes Monster so affecting is its refusal to sensationalize Wuornos’s crimes — instead, it roots her violence in a context of relentless exploitation and trauma. It’s a story of a woman so beaten down that killing becomes, in her mind, a distorted form of survival.
Theron’s performance — at once fierce, pitiable, and terrifying — brings a bruised humanity to a figure many only knew as a tabloid headline. Jenkins’s empathetic storytelling asks viewers to look closer at the circumstances that shaped Wuornos, without ever excusing her actions.
Two decades later, Monster remains a stark reminder of how cinema can illuminate the darkness within and around us — exposing the societal failures that lurk behind infamous crimes. It’s a bleak, heartbreaking, yet deeply human film that lingers long after the credits roll.
WATCH FULL MOVIE: If you want to witness a fearless performance and a story that dares to find tragedy in places most would rather ignore, Monster is essential, haunting viewing.
