When Aileen Wuornos was a child she always dreamed of being rich and famous and having the picture perfect life. As she got a little older she would have settled for being beautiful and falling in love and living happily ever after. But this is not the life that was in the cards for Aileen as she would have a very difficult and cruel childhood plagued by abuse and drug use in Michigan, and she would eventually become a prostitute (and pregnant) by the age of 13. Aileen tired of the life dealt to her and the abuse she constantly receives moves to Florida but there things aren't much different as she doesn't know how to be anything but what she has always been. She ends up becoming a highway prostitute, servicing the desires of semi-truck drivers who also abuse and beat her. But her life changes when she begins to think about ending it all and decides to spend her last five dollars before she does. She wanders into a Gay/Lesbian bar and orders a beer and there she meets Selby who has come to the bar to look for love and come out of the closet as a lesbian. Shelby has been shunned by her family and is lonely and her and Aileen eventually end up clicking. From there the movie focuses on the nine month period in 1989 and 1990 during which Aileen and Shelby explore their relationships and try to find love once more and during which Aileen also began murdering any of her clientele who tried to rape or hurt her to get money so her and Shelby can live the picture perfect live and find the rainbow at the end of the tunnel that has become their dark lives.

The movie is very dark and disturbing and the fact that is based on a true story makes it even more so. But the movie is also very powerful as it tells the story and lives of characters that most people couldn't even begin to imagine or even understand. Aileen has been warped beyond all human perception and even though somewhere deep down she knows it is wrong to kill she can not stop herself as the killing allows for the betterment of her own life even though it may be scarring her in even more profound ways. Most people when they talk about this movie will talk about the acting and rightfully so as the performances given by Charlize Theron and Christina Ricci are breathtaking. Charlize Theron plays the role of Aileen so well you cannot not help but feel sorry for her and pitying her all the while despising and hating her for what she has become. This is very powerful as Charlize Theron is able to compel you to the character and feel for her all the while she is falling deeper and deeper into the darkness. Even Christina Ricci gives a grand performance as the ideal torn young woman who meets Aileen and finds herself being swept up into the tornado of destruction that is Aileen's life and finding herself not sure of the future all the while loving and wanting to be loved. You cannot help but be moved by this film as it shows all the worst of human nature all the while not falling into the pit of comforting you that everything will be all right in the end because for the characters it is most likely never going to be all right. The movie is very dark and it is very disturbed so some people probably should avoid it but if you are looking for a movie that explores the depths of human emotion in a breathtaking manner and will keep you glued to your seat this movie is it.
4 stars out of 5