Monster's Ball

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Monster's Ball

Monster's Ball:

This is probably Halle Berry's best performance to date and she does deserve her Oscar nomination (whether she deserves to win is another debate). Billy Bob Thornton, on the other hand, gives a pretty standard performance which is probably why he was overlooked for a nomination. I'll try to give you a quick plot summary without spoiling it. Hank Grotowski (Billy Bob Thornton) is a Corrections Officer at the local prison. Part of his job is to perform the executions for the death row inmates. After routinely executing a prisoner, Hank accidentally runs into the widow Leticia Musgrove (Halle Berry) and begins a relationship with her. So that's the basic direction that the movie takes. The main problem I had was that the inter-racial relationship seemed all too manufactured and unbelievable, particularly given the circumstances of the characters. Hank has supposedly had generations of racism passed onto him (which he proves early on in the movie). Leticia is supposedly still grieving from recent losses in her life. When they enter their relationship, it just seems to be a bit too ideal and fluffy. I was way more interested in the interaction between Hank's own family as there was definitely more conflict to be had. His father (Peter Boyle) was a condescending racist and his son (Heath Ledger) was trying to break out of the family mold. They surely would have been better off tackling the dysfunctional family angle instead of the inter-racial relationship angle. I gave it 3 spades out of 5 only because Halle Berry's performance manages to salvage a little something out of the weak plot.

-Tso