for her portrayal of Aileen Wuornos.
Critical response On
review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a rating of 82%, based on 191 reviews, with an average rating of 7.2/10. The site's critical consensus states: "Charlize Theron gives a searing, deglamorized performance as real life serial killer Aileen Wuornos in
Monster, an intense, disquieting portrait of a profoundly damaged soul." On
Metacritic, the film has a score of 74 out of 100, based on 40 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".
Monster received generally positive reviews from critics; most gave overwhelmingly high praise to Theron's performance as a mentally unstable woman – Wuornos had
antisocial personality disorder and
borderline personality disorder. For the role, Theron gained , shaved her eyebrows, and wore
prosthetic teeth. Critics called her performance, and her makeup, a "transformation". In 2009, Ebert named it the third-best film of the decade. Ricci's performance also drew some praise, but was not without criticism. In his review for the film, Ebert praised her performance, stating "Christina Ricci finds the right note for Selby Wall – so correct some critics have mistaken it for bad acting, when in fact it is sublime acting in its portrayal of a bad actor. She plays Selby as clueless, dim, in over her head, picking up cues from moment to moment, cobbling her behavior out of notions borrowed from bad movies, old songs, and barroom romances". However, several people who knew Wuornos criticized the movie for portraying her as a victim and her victims as villains.
In culture In 2005, a reference to
Monster appeared in the series
Arrested Development.
Charlize Theron plays the role of
Rita in the series, and in the episode ″
The Ocean Walker″, a frame from
Monster appears on the screen with the clarification that this is a photo of Rita a year ago before the plastic surgery. In 2014, on
Saturday Night Live, Charlize Theron made a self-reference to her role of Aileen Wuornos. In the sketch
Pet Rescue Commercial,
Kate McKinnon asked her to play a cat lady, whose image and behavior are based on Wuornos from
Monster. In 2018, comedian
Willam released his
third album with the song "Aileen" and the music video for the song, which are dedicated to Wuornos and this film. ==Music==