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In Monster, Charlize Theron plays Aileen Wuornos, a physically and mentally abused woman who turns to a life of drug abuse and highway prostitution. She is down to her last dollars and on the verge of suicide when she ends up in a gay bar and meets a much younger and terribly naive 18-year old girl named Selby Wall (Christina Ricci). The two ladies become lesbian lovers and Selby runs away from her middle-class caregivers for a life of living in roadside motels with the chain-smoking Aileen. Aileen supports the couple through her prostitution and eventually turns to killing her clients for their money and their vehicle. Her first victim is in self-defense, as she was in the process of being raped. The six other men she murdered were planned. One was an innocent man who was simply trying to help her. Monster takes us through the final months and leading up to the arrest of the lady who became glamorized by the media as "America's first female serial killer".

Monster is a heart-wrenching movie to watch. It shows us a life that many of us will never experience first hand and none of us would ever want to experience. But that life exists. It is heart-wrenching to see how low one person can go. It is heart-wrenching watching innocent people get murdered in cold blood. The worst part is knowing that this movie is based on a true story.

I have read comments about Monster that referred to Charlize Theron's performance as the best in the history of cinema. It certainly is a memorable performance and one of the best I have ever seen. Theron is unrecognizable in this movie. Anyone who has seen this movie without knowing that she stars in it, would certainly have no idea who was playing the lead role. It really is an outstanding performance and her Oscar was well-deserved. Christina Ricci is also excellent as Selby Ward, although she did not receive nearly the same recognition as Charlize.

The DVD is a bit thin on the extras. Firstly, there is a 14 1/2 minute long featurette called "Based on a True Story: The Making of Monster". It includes interviews with director Patty Jenkins, Charlize Theron, Christina Ricci and Bruce Dern. There are interviews with people who knew Aileen Wuornos and footage from her trial. They show the make-up being put on Charlize that transformed her from a beautiful woman to the hideous prostitute. Some of the footage of Aileen's hometown and the interviews with people who knew her are quite interesting. It is obvious that some of the scenes really were emotionally draining to film for everyone involved in the film. Overall, a very good featurette.

The "Film Mixing Demo" allows you to watch a scene in the movie with the full mix, the effects and music only and the music only. At least I think that's what you are supposed to do. This one was a bit confusing.

The feature called "Interview with Patty Jenkins and BT" runs just over 15 minutes. BT is the name of the music composer for the movie. Fifteen minutes about the music in the movie - nothing ground-breaking here.

The special features also include the theatrical trailer, the international trailer and the DVD also includes previews for "In The Cut", "Monsieur Ibrahim" and "Trapped". For the record, I thought "Trapped" was a terrible movie.

Overall, I would recommend checking out Monster, even if only to see Charlize Theron's performance. It was simply outstanding and the movie is also very, very good. The DVD is a bit thin on the extras (I would have liked to have seen a detailed documentary on Aileen Wuornos) but the great performances and the very good movie more than make up for the DVD's shortcomings.