"Charlize Theron pulls off the year's most astonishing screen makeover in Patty Jenkins's film MONSTER."
-Stephen Holden, New York Times

"Ms. Theron's transformation, supervised by the makeup wizard Toni G, is not just a matter of surfaces."
-Stephen Holden, New York Times

"The emotional intensity of her unforgettable performance recalls Hilary Swank's Oscar winning turn in BOYS DON'T CRY."
-Stephen Holden, New York Times

"[Theron's] unforgettable performance."
-Stephen Holden, New York Times

"Charlize Theron ignites the grim, disturbingly violent true-crime drama MONSTER with a gutsy, tour-de-force performance that should place her at the forefront of the Oscar race for best actress."
-Megan Lehmann, New York Post

"First time writer-director Patty Jenkins' has created an unflinching, yet sympathetic portrait."
-Megan Lehmann, New York Post

"It's Theron's complex, deeply felt depiction of a thoroughly messed-up soul that forces us to look beyond the monstrous nature in her acts."
-Megan Lehmann, New York Post

"Christina Ricci in one of her best performances to date."
-Richard Roeper- Ebert & Roeper

"Charlize Theron deserves an Academy Award."
-Richard Roeper- Ebert & Roeper

"Christina Ricci, Bruce Dern and Scott Wilson are superb."
Leonard Maltin HOT TICKET

"Double HOT!"
-Leonard Maltin & Joyce Kulhawik HOT TICKET

"Theron and Ricci are so absorbing, and Jenkins' direction so deft."
-John Anderson, Newsday

"I haven't used the word 'tour de force' in all of 2003, but now it is time."
-Jami Bernard, Daily News

"Theron breaks through with a ferocious performance."
-Peter Rainer, New York Magazine

"The extraordinary makeup artist Toni G."
-Peter Rainer, New York Magazine

"Patty Jenkins' powerful début.
-Donald Levit, Reel Talk

"Monster is that rare type, a finely done film that engages."
-Donald Levit, Reel Talk

"Charlize Theron…provides an Academy Award-caliber take on one of the most sorrowful women of our time."
Bruce Feld, Film Journal

"Theron gives a gutsy and gritty performance."
-Kirk Honeycutt, The Hollywood Reporter

"Steven Bernstein's sharp, controlled cinematography."
-Kirk Honeycutt, The Hollywood Reporter

"Jenkins, a first-time director of remarkable assurance and sophistication."
-Ella Taylor, LA Weekly

"Patty Jenkins' tough and tender movie."
-Ella Taylor, LA Weekly

"Theron's bravura performance."
-Nicole Keeter, Time Out New York

"'Monster', as directed by Jenkins, has whirlwind force."
William Wolf ,Wolf Entertainment guide

"Not since De Niro in Raging Bull has an actor pulled off so thorough a physical transformation."
Glenn Kenny, Premiere Magazine

"Theron finds not only the toughened harshness and anger, but also the damaged vulnerability, sadness and need in Wuornos, making her work here thoroughly convincing and empathetic"
- David Rooney, Variety

"…an assured feature bow for Jenkins"
- David Rooney, Variety

"Charlize Theron gives one of the year's best performances; she is astonishing".
- Jeffrey Lyons, NBC

"Let me tell you right now: Theron's stripped down, raw performance could easily get her nominated for every major award. She could even win the Oscar. She is that good. "
- Roger Freidman, FOX News

" Theron is a shoo-in for this chilling tour-de-force"
- Anne Thompson, The Observer

"Two thumbs way up for the brilliant 'Monster.'"
-Ebert & Roeper

"Like 'Badlands' and 'The Executioner's Song,' 'Monster' is an unblinking portrait of a killer. In a performance that goes far beyond weight gain and makeup tricks, Charlize Theron deserves and Academy Award."
-Richard Roeper, Ebert & Roeper

"I was mesmerized by what was happening on the screen. What happens in this movie is almost beyond describing, and the performance by Charlize Theron is one of the best performances in the history of cinema."
-Roger Ebert, Ebert & Roper

Ebert & Roeper Transcript of "Monster" Review, Air Date: 12/6/03

RICHARD ROEPER: Aileen Wournos was America's first female serial killer - a hitchhiking prostitute who killed a number of male clients in the late 1980's. And now her story is dramatized in writer/director Patty Jenkins' stark and disturbing "Monster," and this is an early review. The beautiful Charlize Theron undergoes one of the most astonishing physical transformations since Robert DeNiro in "Raging Bull." Here's Theron in "The Italian Job…and as Wournos in "Monster."

RICHARD: And that's Christina Ricci in one of her best performances to date as Selby, a repressed and troubled girl. Aileen fascinates Selby--and Selby throws Aileen off guard with her naïve but sincere affection.

RICHARD: Inspired by the first affectionate relationship in her entire life, she makes a pathetic stab at the straight life.

RICHARD: Like "Badlands" and "The Executioner's Song," "Monster" is an unblinking portrait of a killer. In a performance that goes far beyond weight gain and makeup tricks, Charlize Theron deserves an Academy Award. She presents Wournos as fearsome and vicious, but she also manages to humanize this monster. We see the sadness and the desperation that haunts this woman. This is an amazing, powerful, piece of raw acting. Monster opens on December 24th in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco. It'll be opening around the country in the New Year and we'll keep you posted.

ROGER EBERT: RICHARD, I sat down in the theater. I crossed my leg and I didn't uncross it until the next hour. I forgot to take notes. I was mesmerized by what was happening on that screen. What happens in this movie is almost beyond describing, and the performance by Charlize Theron is one of the best performances in the history of cinema. It's not "acting" in some conventional sense involving technique and method or makeup or whatever-she evokes the mind and soul of this woman, in a presence so focused and so intense and so true that although she is a monster, we feel deep sympathy for her.

ROGER: Now how can I say I felt sympathy for a serial killer? Well, I think Theron's performance and the direction by Patty Jenkins are a great and brave act of empathy-an exercise of their humanity. Christina Ricci's performance is also crucial, providing a character who never really comprehends this injured spirit. Her demands push Aileen deeper into despair and madness.

RICHARD: It's and amazing piece of work. You know, Charlize Theron has been in some pretty good films and has done some decent work in mainstream fare, but we've never seen any hint that she's capable of this performance and it really does go beyond, okay, she doesn't look like anything she's ever looked before. But, you know what? You can do that with makeup and you can do that with anybody gaining or losing weight. That is just the launching point for this incredible piece of work and Patty Jenkins, the script and as you said the direction. You know, it plops us down right smack dab in the middle of this nightmare and as you said, Roger, I felt the same way. From the moment this movie started, you're just lost in it. And you know what's going to happen, I mean I know what's going to happen I saw the documentaries and read about this but even if you don't you know this character's doomed. But to see it unravel and the way it happens.

ROGER: You know, it's thought provoking to think of the actresses and actors out there who never get a chance to show us what they can really do. And, Theron here, I mean one thing she has is complete focus. She is always absolutely in character. Her eyes. Her attention. Her intensity. That speech she gives about how things are going to get better and how people are good and so forth.

RICHARD: Oh, I know.

ROGER: It's heartbreaking! This movie, if this movie doesn't win the Oscar then they might as well retire the award because this is the performance of the year.

RICHARD: I can't imagine a more amazing performance and you know you see this character she's playing and she's not comfortable in this world. Everything she does. I don't care if she's ordering a drink.

ROGER: Her body language.

RICHARD: …no matter what she's doing, you realize, yeah, she is, and you know that she's trying to think, "Well, how do people act in these normal situations? How do I order something at a normal mainstream restaurant?" She's only comfortable maybe when she's with her own kind. You know, kind of fellow outlaws and people on the fringes, but even then she doesn't quite fit in. ROGER: It's a great, great movie

THE CRITICS' JOINT COMMENT FROM THE PROGRAM SUMMARY

ROGER: Two thumbs way up for the brilliant "MONSTER." Opening in limited release on December 24th and in the rest of the country in the New Year.

CRITICS' POST SUMMARY CROSSTALK

ROGER: You know I was completely blindsided by "Monster." I had no idea what to expect and it was one of the great movie going experiences I've ever had.

RICHARD: That's one of the great things, you know, about this time of year. You know there's so much buzz about all these big movies and then something like this comes along and just absolutely devastates you.

ROGER: Yes it does.

End of transcript.