monster's ball

I've had Monster's Ball from netflix for a week without watching it, because I didn't feel like watching a depressing movie. Today I figured I should watch it so I could send it back. I don't think I'm glad I watched it, though (spoilers after the jump). I don't usually rearrange my queue, but since most of the 95 movies on my queue aren't very happy I had to go looking for something to move to the top that wouldn't be quite so horrible. Next up: the Last Unicorn. There better not be any Disney-style tragedy there...

Gah! Sorry about all the republishing. I'm sure I've done expandable posts before, but I can't get it to work now, so you'll be spared my dislike of the movie.

I don't really have any coherent criticism, but wtf? Was that supposed to be a happy ending with Billy Bob saying they were going to be okay? She actually stays with him?? IMDB has a quote (denied by the producers) by Angela Bassett saying she turned down the Halle Berry role because "I wasn't going to be a prostitute on film..." That seems reasonable to me. The whole thing seemed pretty exploitative and pornographic - even the first half where they're just killing off everyone the characters might care about. Was he really supposed to have had a change of heart and actually care about her? He still seemed just as unemotional and selfish in packing his father off to the nursing home so he could get what he wanted with Halle Berry. I just felt sorry for her being left with nothing and stuck depending on that creep. If it was meant to just be completely depressing then I still don't see the point, but it felt like I was supposed to think he'd changed and maybe they'd be okay and I really didn't buy that.