Monster (2003)

  This is about Aileen Wournos, a serial killer from Florida.  From late 1989 through 1990, Wournos killed seven men while working as a prostitute before being caught, convicted, sentenced to die, and finally executed by gas chamber.

Lee (Charlize Theron) is down on her luck, pretty permanently.  Life has handed her lemons and then squeezed them in her eyes.  One night, while waiting out the rain in a gay bar, she meets Selby Wright (Christina Ricci), a sweet, slightly-naive girl who has never really been exposed to the nastiness of the world.  Lee develops kind of a protective streak for Selby and becomes intent on giving her the kind of life she's seen in pictures:  new cars, ready cash, a place of their own.  She pays for these things by killing and robbing johns.  Of course it goes bad.

Patty Jenkins (of Wonder Woman acclaim) wrote and directed this film, which was a surprise to me.  It's a much more sympathetic portrayal than I was expecting.  Wournos is depicted as having been caught in a cycle of abuse and objectification, leading her to take power when the opportunity presents itself.  In today's climate of Time'sUp and #MeToo, the questions are also there about how society fails troubled women.  Would Aileen Wournos be as notorious a figure if she were well-educated, from a good home, straight, and not a prostitute?  The LGBT aspect of her life is also depicted much more positively than many films from the same decade.  Her relationship with Selby is certainly a contributing factor to her killing, because she robs her victims to pay for her lifestyle, but it is in no way the reason why she kills men.

Charlize Theron got a lot of flack about "uglying" up in order to be a contender for (and eventually win) the Best Actress Oscar.  She certainly looks more like Wournos' mugshot than her cover model self but her performance is what sells the role, not her fake teeth and bleached eyebrows.  I honestly don't know if she would have been as compelling without the prosthetics.  I think it's too easy to empathize with beautiful people.  We're hardwired to want them to succeed.  Negating Theron's biological advantages forces us to consider her character as a person, which is necessary for engaging with a story like this.