BEFORE: I've got time for one more film before I head to the airport. Charlize Theron carries over from "A Million Ways to Die in the West", and so does the topic of prostitution, but this time with a more serious tone. This film is NOT on the list of "1,001 Movies to See Before You Die", but the documentary on Aileen Wuornos that was released the same year is, for whatever reason. However, I don't have that film, I have this film, so I'm proceeding.
My challenge heading to San Diego each year is to not miss the flight, and I feel that if I go to sleep, even with the intent of just sleeping for a few hours, I won't get up in time. So I usually stay up all night, leave for the airport at 5 am (fewer cars on the road, I usually get to JFK by car service in 15 or 20 minutes) and spend some time at the airport doing crosswords or having a leisurely breakfast, or both. Still enough time between midnight and 5 to watch this film, write a quick review and throw some clothes into the suitcase to fill the gaps between the booth supplies. I can sleep on the plane better if I'm exhausted when I board - but if I don't sleep on the plane, I'll be double exhausted when I land and have to get everything from the UPS store to the convention center and set up the booth. It's rough to put myself through a 36-hour day before getting real sleep, but it beats missing my plane, I guess.
THE PLOT: Based on the life of Aileen Wuornos, a Daytona Beach prostitute who became a serial killer.
AFTER: Yep, that'll do it - this will keep me from closing my eyes for a while, at least until I can get on the plane. Plenty of time for nightmares then. I dropped the serial killer chain in early June after watching "Eyewitness", "Copycat" and "In the Cut", but that topic is back.
So are the themes I mentioned last night, that of two people in a relationship with different sexual experiences and different ideas about fidelity - here complicated by the fact that Aileen has a lesbian lover, and also sleeps with men for money. The obvious disconnect between one kind of love and another, the condition of being gay but perhaps in denial, and associating another kind of love with abuse creates a downward spiral of self-destruction. Although she kills for the first time in self-defense, it seems like the later killings came more easily, were set off by lesser offenses by her "victims", and in some cases didn't appear to be motivated by the same pattern at all.
Being unable to find any legitimate work that she was qualified her seems like a bit of a justification, though. It seemed like a pretty big leap from "I can't get into law school" to "Well, guess I'm back to hooking and killing again." Did she even try bagging groceries, or working in a stockroom? The world needs people to do those jobs, too.
Being abused as a child, not having opportunities to succeed, living out of a storage facility - these are situations, not excuses. Neither are they justifications for murder, so something was out of whack somewhere. Theron won the Oscar for playing Wuornos more as someone with mental problems, be that anti-social personality disorder or schizophrenia or whatever - I guess that's easier for the audience to understand in the end. But when you throw in the lesbian angle, then the "I'm not gay" denial associated with that, plus an apparent hatred toward men, the lines get a little blurred, I think. She didn't hate and kill all men, just the johns she felt were abusive, unfaithful scumbags. At first, anyway.
Some people seem to refer to Aileen Wuornos as "the only female serial killer". This is not true, although an FBI profiler noted that other female serial killers tend to kill in sprees, while male ones tend to work in sequential fashion. However, he noted that Wuornos was an exception, meaning that she killed people more like a man would, I suppose.
This is one of those times where my personal rating system maybe falls a little short, because I tend to go by how much I enjoyed a film, and some films just aren't meant to be enjoyed. This is ultimately depressing and frustrating as a film, but something tells me it was supposed to be that way to make a point. But man, I need a break. And maybe some mental floss. See you in a week.
Also starring Christina Ricci (last seen in "The Hard Way"), Bruce Dern (last seen in "The Great Gatsby"), Lee Tergesen (last seen in "Red Tails"), Annie Corley, Pruitt Taylor Vince (last seen in "Jacob's Ladder"), Tim Ware (last seen in "42"), Scott Wilson (last seen in "Judge Dredd"), Kane Hodder, Christian Stokes.
RATING: 4 out of 10 sink showers
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