Monster's Ball

 

Monster’s Ball 2001

• Director: Marc Forster
• Seen by this director: Christopher Robin, World War Z, Quantum of Solace, Stranger than Fiction, Finding Neverland
• Based on the book: no
• Cast: Billy Bob Thornton, Halle Berry, Heath Ledger, Yasíin Bery (Mos Def), Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs, Coronji Calhoun
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Billy Bob Thornton – Love Actually, Intolerable Cruelty, Levity, A Simple Plan,Sling Blade, Dead Man, The Stars Fell on Henrietta
• Halle Berry – X-Men etc, The Call, Cloud Atlas, Frankie & Alice, Things We Lost in the Fire, Die Another Day, Introducing Dorothy Dandridge, Jungle Fever
• Heath Ledger – The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, The Dark Knight, Brokeback Mountain, Casanova, The Brothers Grimm, Ned Kelly, A Knight’s Tale, Two Hands, 10 Things I Hate about You
• Yasiin Bey (Mos Def) – Cadillac Records, Be Kind Rewind, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
• Why? I remember it as good
• Seen: Once before. Now 17 November 2022 

       Hank (Thornton) and his son Sonny (Ledger) are prison guards, scheduled to carry out the electrocution of Laurence (Combs), who we see saying a final good-bye to his wife Letitia (Berry) and son Tyrell (Calhoun). We follow them all in the hours and minutes leading up to the execution itself.

       I’ll stop there because anything else I could tell would be a spoiler.

       It’s a powerful and painful film about racism, sexism, hatred, love, grief, an ugly and inhumane penal system, life crises and cruel, failed family relationships. It’s also a film about deeply flawed, damaged and hurting individuals who manage to find remnants of their basic humanity to make a connection and help each other back from the abyss.

       It’s not completely logical and there are other weaknesses in the characterisations but it’s at least as good as I remember it. Halle Berry is well worth the accolades. 

4* of 5