Halle Berry’s performance makes “Monster’s Ball” well worth the effort...
Monster's Ball (2001)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:141
Fresh:120
Rotten:21
Average Rating:7.4/10
Consensus: Somber and thought provoking, Monster's Ball has great performances all around.
Rated: R [See Full Rating] for strong sexual content, language and violence
Runtime: 1 hr 53 mins
Genre: Dramas
Theatrical Release:Dec 26, 2001 Limited
Box Office: $31,252,964
Synopsis:
MONSTER'S BALL is a hard hitting Southern drama tempered by a story of powerful, life-changing love. It is the story of Hank (Billy Bob Thornton), an embittered prison guard working on Death Row...
MONSTER'S BALL is a hard hitting Southern drama tempered by a story of powerful, life-changing love. It is the story of Hank (Billy Bob Thornton), an embittered prison guard working on Death Row who begins an unlikely, but emotionally charged affair with Leticia (Halle Berry), the wife of a man he has just executed. MONSTER'S BALL also features Heath Ledger and Peter Boyle. Boyle plays Hank’s bigoted, aging father, whose hatred seems to have poisoned his entire family as much as the family business, which is working on the prison Death Squad. Ledger plays Hank’s son, who is hell-bent on getting out of the family business. The film is directed by award-winning filmmaker Marc Forster. He was nominated for an IFP/West Spirit Award as Best Low Budget Feature and won the Movado "Someone to Watch" Prize at the 2001 Spirit Awards for his film, "Everything Put Together."
Set in Georgia, MONSTER'S BALL was filmed entirely on location in and around New Orleans, Louisiana and at the notorious Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola (also known as "The Farm").
MONSTER'S BALL is from an original screenplay by Milo Addica and Will Rokos, is produced by Lee Daniels, executive produced by Mark Urman, Mike Paseornek, and co-produced by Milo Addica and Will Rokos. Lions Gate Films will release the film in December, 2001. -- © 2001 Lions Gate Films
Starring: Billy Bob Thornton, Halle Berry, Heath Ledger, Peter Boyle
Starring: Billy Bob Thornton, Halle Berry, Heath Ledger, Peter Boyle, Sean "Puffy" Combs, Mos Def
Director: Marc Forster
Director: Marc Forster
Screenwriter: Milo Addica, Will Rokos
Studio: Lions Gate Films
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Reviews for Monster's Ball
A powerful and poignant motion picture not about racism and redemption, as one might initially suppose, but about one of the most urgent and universal of human needs -- that of finding solace for pain and loneliness.
The kind of quiet, effective film that burrows under the viewer's skin and takes root before you've had a chance to realize that it's permeated your constitutional makeup.
Director Marc Forster shapes his love story like a master potter, forming a story of pure love, untainted by cliché.
This complex, rich film dwells in the shades of grey, never offering an easy answer and always leaving us with questions.
Though the film can initially seem off-putting, Monster's Ball slowly and quietly gets under your skin.
The film's tale is told so well and the performances are so on key that everything feels fresh.
Filmed with a lovely flow of dark shadows and warm light splashes by Roberto Schaefer, the movie is at times a little mood-mooing and too sedately restrained for its own good. And yet these people, so deep in the Deep South, are unquestionably alive.
Monster's Ball drills at us the same way a dentist goes at your teeth, creating pain but for a greater good.
Under Forster's taut, intelligent direction, the cast delivers subtle, complex and realistic performances.
A film in which complex issues are boiled down to human essences, not so much simplified as dramatized in the very best way.
A profoundly hopeful and optimistic film about people's ability to bounce back from just about anything.
The script has a schematic feel and the emblematic character types typical of the work of young writers, particularly those who have something to say and aren't just trying to make a buck.
Disturbing, provocative and, finally, tentatively encouraging, Monster's Ball brings subtlety and quiet conviction to the kind of story routinely exploited on the big screen.
The acting is so good in Monster's Ball, and the understated but intense mood so skillfully maintained, that we tend to overlook the story's contrivances.
Monster's Ball shows that convincing acting and a detailed, developed sense of place can make a story not only believable but moving.
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