Hollywood odds-makers insist that one way for an established actor to guarantee an Oscar nomination is to gain 40 or 50 pounds for a movie deemed noteworthy by studio insiders, audiences and critics.
A deserving Benicio Del Toro was far too unknown a quantity, though, when he put on the feedbag for Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Neither was the commercial success of low-brow comedies Shallow Hal and The Nutty Professor enough to throw votes in the direction of Gwyneth Paltrow and Eddie Murphy.
The theory, which also seems to hold for de-glamorizing prosthetics (Nicole Kidman in The Hours), was trotted out again when Charlize Theron was made the prohibitive favorite to capture the Best Actress prize for Monster. The South African beauty gained 30 pounds for her depiction of Eileen Wuornos, a Florida prostitute executed for killing seven of her johns during the '80s. The added weight and bad skin on her 5-foot-10 frame made Theron look as if she was on hiatus from the roller derby circuit.
Likewise, many of the movie's fans felt Christina Ricci—who played Theron's running lapsed Christian partner and lover—also deserved a nomination. She only was required to gain 10 pounds, though, and apparently it wasn't enough to impress voters.
If anyone exemplified the stereotype of white trash, it was Wuornos. Abandoned by her mother as a child and reared in a rural neighborhood where ingesting massive quantities of drugs and booze was considered an amusing way for teenagers to kill time, Wuornos turned to whoring as a way to make money and maintain her rebellious lifestyle.
In Monster, we're led to believe that Wuornos' first murder came after she was viciously assaulted and sexually abused by a gun-toting trick. The re-creation of the attack lets the audience empathize with the homely prostitute, but it doesn't last long. Before long, she's killing men for their money, and as Johnny Cash once suggested, just to watch them die.
Released simultaneously with Monster is Nick Broomfield's riveting documentary, Aileen—Life and Death of a Serial Killer, which itself is a follow-up to his Aileen Wuornos—The Selling of a Serial Killer. Released in '92, it contained several prison interviews with Wuornos, and described how everyone around her attempted to profit from her crimes. In the sequel, Broomfield interviews Aileen right up to the day before her execution, interviews former friends and neighbors in Michigan, and finds her birth mother.
As horrifying as Monster is to watch, the documentaries are even more disturbing. They reveal facets of Wuornos' dementia at which writer-director Patty Jenkins could only hint. This isn't to diminish her accomplishment in Monster, nor Theron's portrayal of the killer. All three works can exist in the same troubled universe, as a whole portrait or separately.
The same thing happened two years ago with The Magdalene Sisters, when Peter Mullan used actors to depict the horrors visited on Irish Catholic girls who were forced into involuntary servitude for the "sins" of being sexually active, pregnant or merely provocative. Blessed with a fascinating back-story and wonderful acting, it was a heck of a movie. Nonetheless, it almost paled next to Steve Humphries' 1998 made-for-television documentary, Sex in a Cold Climate, in which four of the victims told their own stories. Mullan freely acknowledges his debt to Humphries, and his documentary is included in the DVD package with The Magdalene Sisters.
From Cary Grant to Bo and Luke
When it comes to the subject of leading men, common wisdom holds that Hollywood broke the mold with Cary Grant. Handsome, funny and bristling with class, Grant's appeal wasn't limited to women, as men also admired him. Before Harrison Ford went off the deep end and took off with Calista Flockhart, he probably was the American actor who bore the closest resemblance to Grant. Any Brit who's mentioned in the same sentence with James Bond also qualifies for comparison. Sadly though, the main reason Grant's shoes are unfilled is because Hollywood has stopped making movies for adults. Anyone who wants to see what all of the fuss was about can pick up Warners' new Signature Collection, which includes several new DVD titles: Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House, Destination Tokyo, The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer, My Favorite Wife and Night and Day.
Now, from the sublime to television: June opens with the arrival of special boxed sets of the debut seasons of The Dukes of Hazzard, The A-Team, Quantum Leap, Punky Brewster, Just Shoot Me!, Who's the Boss? and the Vietnam-themed Tour of Duty. Most of these series have been in syndication for years, and provide the foundation for the basic-cable business. With collections like this, who needs TV Land?
Pitch Black released
Next up in the lineup of summer popcorn movies is The Chronicles of Riddick, a sequel to Pitch Black, starring Vin Diesel and Dame Judi Dench. What, you didn't see it? Riddick's a blind intergalactic fugitive, and as such, a super-anti-hero. Those already familiar with the saga will want to check out the director's-cut edition of Pitch Black and animated The Chronicles of Riddick: Dark Fury, which bridges the two movies.