Monster's Ball

[Guest tank_abbott]

I saw Monster's Ball for the 1st time last night, and I found it underwelming (sp?). It was a perfectly okay movie, and a good story overall, but I felt the movie seemed rushed, and it glossed over somethings rather quickly.

 

I was watching this movie with the sound low, and I was sort of doing a thing or 2 while watching it, so there were some things I didn't get. (Probably symbolic gestures that went over my head)

 

1> Why did they choose to have Halle's kid be obese? This didn't seem to be a plot device of any kind...

 

2> What was the deal with the whore Billy Bob and his kid went to see? Was this explained and I missed it? (I did find the quick climax his son experienced to be quite funny and truthful...unlike Billy Bob and Halle's scene, which while being a steamy sex scene, was rather unrealistic IMO, but it fit within Hollywood's cliche of 2 near strangers will meet, and in their 1st sexual encounter experience simultanious orgasms (a rare occurance from what I hear)

 

I was also surprised more of the movie did not take place within the prison itself... I think I had more, but it's slipped my mind at the moment.... your thoughts?

[Guest El Satanico]

I was also surprised more of the movie did not take place within the prison itself... I think I had more, but it's slipped my mind at the moment.... your thoughts?

There was no need for that.

 

Her man being in prison wasn't the focus of the movie. It was just used as a plot device.

[Guest IDrinkRatsMilk]

I think making the kid obese helped by making you view the character with a bit more symathy/disdain, and sometimes he was almost humorous which gets a better reaction out of his fate.

[Guest Some Guy]

The way I took it was that he was fat because she couldn't control him because she was borderline retarded or at least very uneducated and the man in the house went off and got himself executed.

[Guest tank_abbott]

 

I was also surprised more of the movie did not take place within the prison itself... I think I had more, but it's slipped my mind at the moment.... your thoughts?

There was no need for that.

 

Her man being in prison wasn't the focus of the movie. It was just used as a plot device.

I was disappointed, per se, by the lack of time spent in the prison, I was merely surprised by it, because I thought the movie would be more Green Mile-esque...

[Guest tank_abbott]

Here's a twist I didn't think of:

 

Does anyone else think she beat her son to death? Let me explain:

 

1) We do know she has been abusing the little boy, both verbally and physically

2) The policeman talks about doing an autopsy (and they're experienced enough to know the diffrence between "hit by a car" and "hit by another person")

3) They certainly wouldn't perform an autopsy without good reason. In the hospital, the cop questions Thorton's character intensly about the incident (something like "did you actually see it happen or did you take her word for it that it was a hit and run?") The doctors whould have already seen bruises and such on the child's body from past abuse and would have already alerted the cops about this (otherwise there's no need for such interogation, is there?)

 

I think this adds much depth (and creepiness!) to this great movie, and also to Hale's performance. Such tragedy! They don't even realize how much they have in common. They have both contributed to their children's deaths!

 

This makes the movie even better, because if you think about it this provides a great plot "twist", in the sense that at the beginning Thorton's character is the bad guy (racist, mean, ill-tempered, loveless, violent) and Berry's character is the good one (hard working single mom, been through a lot, trying to make ends meet, etc). But are things really the way they seem?

[Guest Smark-Raving Mad]

I enjoyed this movie. It was so hideously dark at times, I was almost laughing at it. Like after Billy Bob's dad makes the racial comment to Halle, Billy Bob basically throws him away in the nursing home.

 

Or instead of throwing away the chair Heath Ledger kills himself in, they just wipe it off.

 

Such a brutal movie, I loved it.

[Guest Mole]

I thought it was funny how she asked for more money to show her boobs in Swordfish. But in this movie, she fucks Billy Bob hardcore, and I don't think she got anymore money.