Most of the talk concerning this film centers on the transformation that Charlize Theron put herself thru in order to play this part of serial killer Aileen Wuornos. It is hard to believe how homely that the striking and glamorous Theron was able to make herself in order to look the part.  On one hand, it is an amazing make-up job.  However, on the other hand, her looks are somewhat distracting because I found myself focusing way too much on this aspect of the film.  But having said this, there is much to like about this movie which has a different feel to it than most films about serial killers.

      We soon find out that Aileen is a homeless prostitute who turns tricks just to survive day-to-day.  Thru some quick and vague flashbacks, she apparently was sexually abused by either her father or uncle.  This sets off the basic theme of the film that she was more the victim in this whole story rather than the innocent and unsuspecting johns that she picked up.  But I'll get back to this part later.  Aileen soon meets Selby (played marvelously by Christina Ricci) at a lesbian bar.  Aileen is just there to get out of the rain and get a drink but of course Selby thinks she is a lesbian and tries to pick her up.  They begin a friendship which eventually turns them into lovers and a desire to make a better life for themselves.

      Selby is a lonely and lost young woman who appears to crave the friendship of another woman and as fate would have it, she ends up unknowingly with a serial killer.  Soon after they have met, one of Aileen's sessions with a john turns tragic when the guy beats and rapes her but she finds a gun in his car and ends up killing him.  After that, either because she fears that each john will do the same to her or she figures out a way to get easy money, she starts to kill her pick-ups and get their money as well as their car.  Of course, it is only a matter of time before the cops catch her and as history tells us, she is eventually put to death for her murders.

      As I mentioned, everybody is talking about Charlize Theron and what she did to herself to look the part of Aileen.  But to tell the truth, I got the feeling that she was over-acting in certain parts of the film and it seemed at times that she was trying just a little too hard to act and look the part of this trailer-trash murderer.  I thought the acting by Ricci as the lost Selby was actually better and the role a more complex one.  Ricci was able to make Selby such a sympathetic character that we find ourselves hoping that she gets herself out of this time-bomb situation with Aileen and become a stronger and more confident person.  Just the looks and mannerisms that Ricci displays while playing this character makes us understand exactly what this person is going through.  It is bad enough that she has hooked up with a serial killer, but she is also having a terrible time explaining her sexual identity to her family.  Theron may indeed win an Oscar for her performance, but I would dare say that Ricci is actually more deserving.

      Director Patty Jenkins has crafted a neat style telling this story which has already been told several times before.  There are some really compelling scenes and some interesting camera shots in this film.  This film could have easily been just another TV movie of the week but instead, Jenkins has given us a most interesting and unique take on the serial killer movie.  One problem with the film is that it did tend to show men in a mostly negative way in such a way to try to convince us that Aileen was more the victim then the men she killed.  Otherwise, this is an engrossing film that will hold your interest throughout.  Even with the few things that bothered me with this movie, I still highly recommend it.

      Never have I disagreed with a fellow Popkorn Junkie reviewer concerning a single aspect of a film like I am doing here.  In Mike's review, though very positive for the film, he made the statement that Charlize Theron's performance was not as deserving as Christina Ricci's.  Wow.  After seeing this picture, the only thing that kept racing in my mind was how utterly brilliant, convincing, and haunting Charlize Theron was as Aileen.  The way she controls her facial expressions, the way she loses herself in some of the more graphic scenes, and the way she is unrecognizable, both in appearance and performance -- she gave me goosebumps.  Fellow critic Roger Ebert called her performance 'one of the greatest in the history of cinema', and I would most certainly agree with that statement.  When looking at Theron and what she has done in the past, and for her to just pull this one out of nowhere and deliver such an emotional whallop -- if she does not win Best Actress for this film, a great travesty will have been committed.  As for Christina Ricci, I felt her performance was also very strong, but not even a fraction of the caliber at which Theron portrayed Wuornos.  I would also like to throw in that Bruce Dern did a fine job also.  As for the movie as a whole, I felt it was somewhat flawed, with some key holes in the pace of the story.  I also felt that there were too many alternate focal points in the film that took away from Aileen, whom the story is about.  But, you know what -- they could have had Adam Sandler and Chris Tucker reading Dr. Suess in the background and I would still give it a perfect score for the mesmerizing performance from Theron.