iamnotbatman-91542 The movie is basically a f**k you to all the black people out there. It basically portrays a racist white man as a noble hearted gentleman who saves a black women from the rotting life she is stuck in.I don't mind the love story but it doesn't have a basis for it to form in the world,it all just happens because the women is vulnerable and ready to fall into the racist man's arms. I truly wanted to vomit after watching this propagandist bullshit.

TonyMontana96 (Originally reviewed: 17/03/2017) A picture that is elevated by the strength of its lead performances, Thornton play's it quiet so Halle Berry can take centre stage and deliver an emotional powerhouse of a performance. Despite one or two problems like the build up to a character's death that has little to no reasoning behind it that expects us to believe that 'because his father did not like him', he got depressed and shot himself; which is something that I just found rather unbelievable and another sequence where a child dies, and the hospital staff have a lack of respect during the situation; in which looked like one woman was smirking when Berry started crying; but other than these scenes; the picture does work, having plenty of assertive dialogue, looking adequate; cinematography and location wise and a last half an hour that is truly impressive. Halle Berry (Leticia) the widower of the executed killer give's perhaps her best performance to date, as an emotionally out of control woman, that's losing her house, has lost her husband and is poised to pull extra shift's at work to be able to cope with her son; and I really wanted her character to end up happy in the end, because here was a woman with a lot of personality and likability. The prison guard Hank is played by Billy Bob Thornton and despite being racist in the beginning, and mean, you see him develop into a calmer, more helpful kind of person that is giving lift's to Berry and helping out coloured neighbours, it was a revelation to see him change his ways, and a pleasure to see the story unfold. Among the supporting cast are Heath ledger, who is very good as his son (Sonny), and Peter Boyle as Hank's nasty, racist father who is barely even able to walk to the kitchen and also mean spirited right down to his core but played well by Boyle.The picture has some melodramatics, but there carefully done, and personally I found the story compelling and very interesting, there's some scenes that are rather better than other's but the screenplay from Milo Addica and Will Rokos is a triumph with an unconventional conclusion that see's two character's sitting down looking to the future, despite Berry's character knowing full well Thornton's secret, and seeing what she will do after finding out was always going to be predictable but somehow it wasn't, it was something surprising. Just like the racist tone of the film, it's not heavy, it's more minor with bursts of racism, and I for one found this serious, skilfully crafted story well worth my time; Forster's direction is impressive, there's a nice, realistic sex scene between Berry and Thornton and the performances are something special. All in all this is a very good drama that's never boring, paced adequately and has a more than satisfying conclusion.

seymourblack-1 Capital punishment, racism and abusive parents feature strongly in this story about the healing power of love and its great ability to grow in even the most unlikely circumstances. The mood is often sombre and the characters' feelings of despair, grief and regret are profound. Despite all of this, the hope and comfort that unexpected love can bring is ultimately shown as being able to point the way to hope and optimism for the future. In the wrong hands, a story like this could easily have developed into a melodramatic slush-fest but fortunately in this case, the movie was directed more intelligently with uncompromising depictions of its characters and the romantic developments being presented without sentimentality.Hank Grotowski (Billy Bob Thornton) is a Georgia prison Corrections Officer who's responsible for supervising the arrangements leading up to the execution of convicted cop-killer Lawrence Musgrove (Sean Combs). Hank's team includes his son, Sonny (Heath Ledger) and on the day of the execution, when the prisoner is being led to the electric chair, Sonny becomes overwhelmed by what's happening, starts vomiting and has to break off from the detail to recover. After the execution has been carried out, Hank violently attacks his son in front of the other men in his team and then when they return home, a second attack concludes with Sonny killing himself. Hank had always hated his son for being weak and after his suicide, swiftly buries him and then resigns from his job.Hank lives with his white racist father, Buck (Peter Boyle) who's a retired Corrections Officer and a wheelchair-bound invalid. His wife had committed suicide some years earlier.Leticia Musgrove (Halle Berry) had worked hard to bring up her son Tyrell (Coronji Calhoun) during the eleven years that her husband Lawrence had been on death row awaiting the outcomes of various appeals but now, after his execution, had arrived at a real low-point facing the prospect of losing her car, her job and her house. Tyrell had inherited his father's talent for drawing but gets beaten and verbally abused by his mother because she's disgusted by his obesity. One night, Hank is driving along a stretch of road when he sees Leticia screaming for help and after discovering that Tyrell had been injured by a hit-and-run driver, takes the boy and his mother to the nearest hospital. A short time later, Tyrell dies and afterwards, Hank drives Leticia home not realising that this would lead to a relationship that would bring them both a great deal of comfort and start to make them feel human again."Monster's Ball" doesn't pull any punches in showing the pain that people in dysfunctional families can suffer or the damaging effects that a bigoted, bullying, patriarch can have on the lives of his offspring. Hank's experience of being brought up by Buck had naturally led to him becoming a racist and regarding anyone who's sensitive as being weak. The potential for this kind of attitude to continually be passed from father to son is extremely powerful and damaging and so, it's particularly ironic that in Hank's case, after suffering a dreadful tragedy in his life, he should find comfort in a relationship with a black woman whose life had also been blighted by tragedy.When Hank and Leticia meet for the first time, they don't know that they're connected by Lawrence's execution and the ways in which they both discover this information at different times and reconcile themselves to the situation, is both very powerful and brilliantly acted."Monster's Ball" is full of good performances with Peter Boyle and Heath Ledger standing out in their supporting roles. The casting of Billy Bob Thornton and Halle Berry in the leading roles is also perfect as they both make their characters believable as individuals as well as showing, in a very natural way, how well they get to appreciate each other's company. This movie is strong on simplicity and realism and it's these qualities that contribute so much to its incredible power and poignancy.

raliballen This was one of the most beautiful and saddest movies I have ever seen. She loses her husband and son, only to find herself at peace again when shes all alone and confused in life. The only thing I had a hard time with in this film is their portrayal of Halle Berry's race and the resemblance of her son to his parents. Halle Berry is bi-racial and they portrayed her as being black and raised in the ghettos of the south. I know she has a brownish skin tone, but that doesn't make her fully black. She has both white and black ancestry and you cant deny that. I hate people that want to make mixed race people label themselves as black. The one drop rule doesn't make sense.