Monster - 1

Nihilism. That is the essence of this film, in a word. I wanted to think otherwise, but the concluding narration as she is hauled off to jail only confirms this. Mind you it is based on a true story, but the narrator/writer take some liberty to explain the inner landscape of Aileen Wuornos's mind. Aileen is a prostitute, who turns into a serial killer who kills to get money off of victims rather than selling sex. This soon turns into killing even those that are picking her up to try to help her out. She was put to death for her crimes in 2002. The film shows how deeply disturbed she was. In the end, she concludes that love, forgiveness, peace, happiness are all just lies we tell ourselves to cope with the pain that is human existence and survival. This story, although very sad and somewhat realistic to life's pain, is not told well and fails to do justice to the full reality of the world.