(a late review that contains spoilers and talks about sex)
Under the surface of events that takes place in Monster's Ball lies the heart of a deep melodrama. It is a film about the transformation of two completely different persons, gathered by a common sense of loss and an urge to start over.
Harsh to his own son, subservient to his rude and prejudicious father, strict as a rock in his job as a prison guard, Hank is a man that has assumed a series of roles for himself in the course of his life. Grown in the codes of discipline and hatred, he is forced to face his growing emptiness after the tragic death of his son. Although insensitive to his own grief, Hank will find a strange and unpredictable attachment with Leticia, a black woman going through a much more painful process of mourning. Love comes as a redemption to Hank, and Leticia welcomes him in her life passionate and desperately.
After a sweetly balanced approach their attraction comes together in what is an intense scene where the limits of love and sex are undistinguishable. It's certainly surprising to see a sex scene so deeply consequent to a film like the one in Monster's Ball. Controversies (childish to say the least) on the side, what this film shows is how the union of a man and a woman can change someone, and how sex can be the trigger to a process of breaking the barriers between people. And what this film, apparently simple but complex at the same time, has of brilliant, is that it expresses love in a way that is also profoundly physical. This is not your nineteenth century romantic, idealistic and dessexualized love. It is a truthful display of the mechanics of sexuality as something bigger and pure, and in that sense, it is a contemporary portray of love that is understandable far beyond the social context where it originates from. In that sense, there is nothing of fantastic in Hank's changes of attitude towards life and others. What changes in him is the very reference of an emotional relation that he never had or knew before.
Deeply contemporary, this look at love that manifests itself as an inverted melodrama of two beings that find in one another the strength and dignity that was missing in their lives. This is a five star movie, sweet and acre as a chocolate ice cream...
Under the surface of events that takes place in Monster's Ball lies the heart of a deep melodrama. It is a film about the transformation of two completely different persons, gathered by a common sense of loss and an urge to start over.
Harsh to his own son, subservient to his rude and prejudicious father, strict as a rock in his job as a prison guard, Hank is a man that has assumed a series of roles for himself in the course of his life. Grown in the codes of discipline and hatred, he is forced to face his growing emptiness after the tragic death of his son. Although insensitive to his own grief, Hank will find a strange and unpredictable attachment with Leticia, a black woman going through a much more painful process of mourning. Love comes as a redemption to Hank, and Leticia welcomes him in her life passionate and desperately.
After a sweetly balanced approach their attraction comes together in what is an intense scene where the limits of love and sex are undistinguishable. It's certainly surprising to see a sex scene so deeply consequent to a film like the one in Monster's Ball. Controversies (childish to say the least) on the side, what this film shows is how the union of a man and a woman can change someone, and how sex can be the trigger to a process of breaking the barriers between people. And what this film, apparently simple but complex at the same time, has of brilliant, is that it expresses love in a way that is also profoundly physical. This is not your nineteenth century romantic, idealistic and dessexualized love. It is a truthful display of the mechanics of sexuality as something bigger and pure, and in that sense, it is a contemporary portray of love that is understandable far beyond the social context where it originates from. In that sense, there is nothing of fantastic in Hank's changes of attitude towards life and others. What changes in him is the very reference of an emotional relation that he never had or knew before.
Deeply contemporary, this look at love that manifests itself as an inverted melodrama of two beings that find in one another the strength and dignity that was missing in their lives. This is a five star movie, sweet and acre as a chocolate ice cream...