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Monster's Ball
Monster's Ball
Actors: Billy Bob Thornton, Taylor Simpson, Halle Berry, Gabrielle Witcher, Heath Ledger
Genres: Drama, Mystery & Suspense
R     2003     1hr 51min

A hard-hitting southern drama tempered by a story of powerful life-changing love. It is the story of hank an embittered prison guard working on death row who begins an unlikely but emotionally charged affair with leticia t...  more »
     
     

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Movie Details

Actors: Billy Bob Thornton, Taylor Simpson, Halle Berry, Gabrielle Witcher, Heath Ledger
Genres: Drama, Mystery & Suspense
Sub-Genres: Love & Romance, Family Life, Mystery & Suspense
Studio: Lions Gate
Format: DVD - Color,Widescreen - Closed-captioned,Subtitled
DVD Release Date: 02/18/2003
Original Release Date: 02/08/2002
Theatrical Release Date: 02/08/2002
Release Year: 2003
Run Time: 1hr 51min
Screens: Color,Widescreen
Number of Discs: 1
SwapaDVD Credits: 1
Total Copies: 4
Members Wishing: 0
MPAA Rating: R (Restricted)
Languages: English
Subtitles: English, Spanish
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Member Movie Reviews

K. K. (GAMER)
Reviewed on 9/7/2022...
Billy Bob Thornton and Halle Berry shine in this movie that has lots of twists and turns exposing the ugly side of life at times. A must watch!

Movie Reviews

Lives of desperation converge on the raw edge
Joseph Haschka | Glendale, CA USA | 01/06/2002
(5 out of 5 stars)

"Billy Bob Thornton already has a fine movie to his credit for the 2001 film season, THE MAN WHO WASN'T THERE. He stars in MONSTER'S BALL, a film that may possibly vie with IN THE BEDROOM for multiple Oscars.Here, Thornton plays Hank Grotowski, a senior corrections officer at a prison ostensibly placed in Georgia. Hank supervises a team of officers, which includes his son Sonny (Heath Ledger), and which is assigned to carry out the electric chair execution of a black convict. (Incidentally, a "monster's ball" is defined as the party thrown for a prison guard before he attends at his first execution.) Living with Hank at home is his aging, physically debilitated and venomously racist father, Buck (Peter Boyle), formerly a prison guard also.The wife of the man to be executed is Leticia, played by Halle Berry. She's gamely trying to pay the rent and keep the car running by working as a waitress, and is raising an overweight son whom she sharply disciplines in an attempt to get him to stop eating everything in sight. (Leticia is convinced that fat, black men don't have a chance in America.)Both Hank and Leticia are leading separate lives of quiet - and sometimes not so quiet - desperation, each being psychologically and emotionally dragged under by circumstances and taxing personal relationships. Then, in a series of traumatic events over a short period of time, each is cut free of burdens and left, through serendipitous accident, with only each other. MONSTER'S BALL contains several volatile scenes of emotions on the rawest of edges, and which will keep the viewer riveted. Thornton and Berry both give exemplary performances as two people in unlikely company coming to grip with personal demons. As fair warning to the sensitive, the film incorporates episodes of intense sexuality.Thornton has become one of my favorite actors, and this is the first time I've seen Berry in any role. I liked this movie very much, and would be hard pressed to choose between it and IN THE BEDROOM for this year's Best Picture Academy Award."
Excellent performances in a throught provoking film
Nancy R. Katz | NJ | 12/02/2001
(5 out of 5 stars)

"Monster's Ball is one of those rare movies which come along and envelops the viewer. The cast alone which includes Billy Bob Thornton, Peter Boyle, Heath Ledger and Halle Berry are cause enough to see the movie but the plot and outcome are further reason to see this fine film and applaud all associated with this movie. While the subject matter at times is rather grim and one may close their eyes for certain scenes, one leaves the theater feeling that this was time well spent.Billy Bob Thornton plays the son of a law enforcement officer and the father of a young man, also a law enforcement officer. He comes from a long line of bigoted men which is evident when two young black brothers want to hang out with Thornton's 20 something son. In addition to Thornton not liking blacks he doesn't seem to like his son too much either. Central to the movies plot is the execution of a black man. As Thornton and the other correction officers including his son prepare this man and then witness the execution, the viewer is likely to think this might be the end of Thornton's involvement with the executed man. But the execution has serious reprecussions on Thorntons life as a tragedy befalls him and he then meets the executed mans widow. And as they begin a rather unusual relationship you as the viewer are held mesmerized by the events unfolding on the screen.There are parts of this movie which are truly painful to watch
and at times the viewer may find themselves overwhelmingly uncomfortable. But these feelings only further heighten the movies effect as one feels as though they are witnessing real life instead of a story. The performances are wonderful and one leaves the theater with a great deal to think about for some time. Even the title is a good choice as monster's ball was the term used in England for the party which was held the night before an execution.Do see this movie!"
Love Among The Ruins
MICHAEL ACUNA | Southern California United States | 01/03/2002
(4 out of 5 stars)

"Marc Forster's "Monster's Ball" contains a host of horrific deeds and actions in its' first 40 minutes...so many in fact, I almost walked out of the theater: child abuse, attempted patricide, suicide, public execution, racial hatred to name several. I felt like yelling at the screen: ENOUGH ALREADY! But a morbid fascination with where this movie was going made me stay in my seat, mouth open...and I can honestly say that ultimately "Monster's Ball" proved to be worth my time and effort.
But,the big question here is: why show so much negativity? Does so much downbeat material make for an uplifting, or more importantly interesting movie experience? Does: "I'm so down...it looks like up to me" apply here? Why have your main character,Hank Grotowski (Billy Bob Thornton) exhibit such self-loathing and hatred and thereby making him unpalatable as a hero? And ultimately does Hank's metamorphosis into a loving person make sense?
I don't have all the answers but I certainly do have impressions and can attest to the cumulative power of the images presented. Hanks's conversion from bigot to loving, caring human being and Leticia's (Halle Berry)lover doesn't make logical sense but we are rooting for "them" to work and so when it does we believe it. Hank and Leticia are two lost souls, at the end of their psychic ropes, whose only hope for survival is each other. And so they cling and they claw and they gravitate towards each other as only the desperate are wont to do. As Leticia says to Hank in as heartbreaking a way as possible, and after years of being tread upon and beaten down: "I need you to take care of me."
Much has been said of Halle Berry's performance and it is a wonder: frustrated, down-and-out, sexually repressed, needy, tired and worn out but always exhibiting the smallest kernel of hope. Billy Bob Thornton wakes up from his zombie-like performance in "The Man Who Wasn't There" and makes Hank a living breathing character...fantastically flawed yet seemingly capable of turning his life around.
"Monster's Ball" will be a hard watch for many people and it's flaws might be enough to turn people off but ultimately it is a profoundly even perversely powerful film...not for everyone but for the few who can appreciate the redemptive power of LOVE."