Monster’s Ball
Directed by Marc Forster.
Starring Billy Bob Thorton & Halle Berry.
In the Deep South men are men, women are whores or housewives, and blacks are on Death Row. Hank Grotowski (Thorton) is the senior guard on the Row. He is accustomed to accepting the accepted: as a guard he values ritual; his racism is habitual deference to his being-a-man-is-doing-as-a-man father (Peter Boyle). His son, Sonny, is the newest guard on the Row. Sonny is played by Heath Ledger but don’t go just to wave the flag because he’s not around for long: he chokes with nausea on his first prisoner-escort and commits suicide when Hank tells him he’s a wuss.
Leticia (Berry) is the wife of the executee, ground down by debt and the thankless years of waiting for her husband to die. When her teenage son is hit by a car, Hank, ignorant of her identity, helps her to the hospital. Their separate losses make them mutually sympathetic and they form a relationship.
Essentially, it’s a story of humanity played for romantic poignancy before a background of social and human tragedy. The interest lies in seeing how Hank and Leticia deal with their own and each other’s pasts. Billy Bob Thorton is, of course, good value as the laconic, stone-faced man, emerging from the shadow of his upbringing. Berry is far too glamorous (perfect skin and hair, broomstick-with-breasts figure) to be convincing for her harried and hopeless role. The characters are unfortunately let down by a lack of context, especially the town’s apparent obliviousness or indifference to their relationship. There are a number of implausibilities, particularly how their relationship could last any time at all. Crises do, in fact, develop constantly but are resolved without a murmur. Monster’s Ball is watchable but not much more. Amor vincit omnia.
Guy
