The phase of a person molding up depends on the surroundings and mainly the actions of their parents. It is human instinct to make the loved ones happy, even sometimes hating some one. Packing all the emotions of good ness inside him is been Hank’s (Billy Bob Thornton) life. Act of showing some kind ness to the people is considered the sign of weak to the family of Grotowski and that is how Buck (Peter Boyle) has brought up his son, Hank. Sonny (Heath Ledger) is different kind or rather one who is not afraid of his emotions not as of Hank. The introduction of Sonny is good enough on what he is missing of in his life. Sex and Love. Hank on the other hand demonstrates his state of doing the right thing through his job. A job which would drain out the last bit of hatred from any one; orchestrating the execution in the department of corrections. Ironically, in a way Hank gets clean whenever he is inside the death house. He does not let out the animal of ferociousness inside this place. He understands the strong and fragile moments in an occasion like this. As soon as his job gets done, his internal engine of hatred and anger fuelled by his upbringing triggers him. This leads in confronting brutally his son for a mistake Sonny commits during the execution procedure of an inmate Lawrence (Sean ‘P.Diddy’ Combs).Lawrence is spending his last few moments with his son, Tyrell (Coronji Colhoun) and his wife, Leticia (Halle Berry). Tyrell as Lawrence says is the best of him. Lawrence spends his Monster’s Ball (The fare well feast given to the prisoner before their execution) with Hank and Sonny. With financial squeezing in, Leticia with her son who as his father relaxes by drawing realizes they need to get on with their life.
I guess if I understood it right, the night of Monster’s Ball connects these two different frames of character and hence comes the title. Unknowingly these linked in people meet by fate and find something soulful to make their life a little better for the while they are together. The film polishes with the style of sleek camera work by Roberto Schaefer. It is nice to see films such moody and independent as this gets a stylish look. It seems it would seem awkward when it is written out here but it really strikes the combination at right notes.
The film is about how the upbringing and constant control of a person with an attitude of racism bring in. At some point of time in their life, every one hits the threshold of doing the wrong thing and fall down. Whether to lie there helplessly and die or to get up with being hit upon and start a new life is the question. Hank picks himself up and does the right thing. For once he listens to his inner cries which got numbed by his father’s improper preaching’s and also the job which put the added pressure on the battle inside him. His regret is unexplainable and that’s the reason he cannot articulate his emotions properly while confiding with Leticia. The action of his son shakes him up but he puts up a stern face to the public. The public which is his father. When he does the right thing of lending a helping hand to Leticia he gets struck by the kick of having a clean soul. This drives him further and tries to continue it.
When the resultant of these heavy feeling in Hank is expected, Leticia is not able to understand her state. She is a nice mother who wants her son to be happy. Her tiredness got bigger as the time went by waiting on what is to happen to her husband’s end. A sour unimaginable expectation of the hopeless eleven years and as expected, to see her husband’s execution. She does not have time to think about this because there is another life ahead. An innocent child getting to know the world and she needs to prepare him. Already in the deep hole of misery, she loses the final member in her life. She does not know how to react after the sad ness gets over by the loss of her son. The losses dries her inside and out and when Hank questions her on what she expects him to do, the confused emotions over come her.
The characters in the film are made to walk on a line and also twist and turn when the line takes its way erratically. Handling those sketchy and tightened up beings is brought up in strong sequences. Hank and Sonny, Hank and Buck, Hank and Leticia, Leticia and Tyrell, all of these have their strongest moments. In those moments, there is an unexpected result. The strongest moment of course forms in between Hank and Leticia and there by becomes the final frame of the film. The strongest becomes the most peaceful moment in the whole film. And the only peace which emerges out of it is from the butchered and tainted past forgotten for good.
There is a consistent mood of balanced dull emotions set in this film which is disturbing and restless, that the audience feels the moment of burst getting bigger and realize that the result is going to be extremely devastating. Elongating this tension throughout the course of this movie and making the audience numb to the deaths constitutes further more pressure. Adding to all this is the melancholic and somber element of music score which makes it even more chilling and gloomy. With all the character of an intense drama, bringing in the expected as unexpected is a skill and director Marc Forster plays it to perfection. And in “Monster’s Ball” he brings in the unusual peace in to these sad characters.
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