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Monster's Ball

2001

Marc Forster

Billy Bob Thornton, Halle Berry, Heath Ledger, Peter Boyle ...

6.8

16,853

Drama Set in modern Louisiana, MONSTER'S BALL subtly examines the impact of personal loss and the transforming power of human connection. The movie begins in the state penitentiary's death row, where father-and-son prison guards Hank (Billy Bob Thornton) and Sonny Grotowski (Heath Ledger) administer the execution of a black death-row inmate Lawrence Musgrove (Sean Combs), who leaves behind a wife, Leticia (Halle Berry), and son, Tyrell ... [+]

	Author	Review
United States	Roger Ebert Chicago Sun-Times	"The movie has the complexity of great fiction (...) Students of screenwriting should study the way the film handles the crucial passages at the end (...) Rating: ★★★★ (out of 4)"	POS
United States	Peter Travers Rolling Stone	"The year’s unlikeliest love story. The actors make it unique and unforgettable"	POS
United States	Edward Guthmann SFGATE	"Director Marc Forster has a wonderful sense of pacing and casts a haunting sheen over this tale of damaged souls seeking redemption"	POS
United Kingdom	Angie Errigo Empire	"It seems dour on the surface, but is an unsentimental, yet achingly eloquent, affirming story of transformation and hope (...) Rating: ★★★★ (out of 5)"	POS
United States	Michael Rechtshaffen The Hollywood Reporter	"All the underscored dreariness serves to make Monster's Ball more of an endurance test than an oddball but affecting voyage of self-discovery"	NEU
United States	A. O. Scott The New York Times	"The characters and the bond that develops between them are too complex for words (...) Their economy and the eloquence of Mr. Forster's unshowily beautiful images give 'Monster's Ball' the density and strangeness of real life"	POS
United Kingdom	Ben Falk BBC	"Intimate, gruelling, and in some strange way, uplifting.(...) Rating: ★★★★ (out of 5)"	POS
United Kingdom	Philip French The Guardian	"There is some clumsiness in the film (...) but there's nothing wrong with the performances (...) Halle Berry demonstrates an impressive range of emotions in the best role she's had to date"	POS
United Kingdom	Emanuel Levy Screendaily	"Although marred by a schematic screenplay that bluntly telegraphs its social and humanist messages, the film still manages to tell a compelling love story"	NEU
United States	Scott Tobias AV Club	"Marc Forster and his stellar cast transform Ball's dubious premise into a surprisingly nuanced and resonant melodrama"	POS

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