Monster's Ball

By EWAN McDONALD

(Herald rating: * * )

Every week brings another horror story from that cruel, heartless fraud called the American justice system. Last week there were two: a man jailed for rape for more than 20 years, set free a few weeks before his term ended because DNA evidence proved he couldn't have done the crime; another man's execution stayed after he had eaten his "last meal", the Supreme Court intervening because he had been so heavily sedated during his trial that he had to be removed from court because the jury couldn't hear over his snoring.

Monster's Ball, for which Halle Berry won the Best Actress Oscar earlier this year, focuses on two families caught up in the system. In one camp are the disabled Buck Grotowski (Peter Boyle), his son Hank (Billy Bob Thornton), and grandson Sonny (Heath Ledger).

Hank and Sonny work at the Georgia "correctional facility" where they handle executions. Both Buck and Hank's wives have committed suicide. Sonny's only relationship is with the town's prostitute, Vera (Amber Rules). These men, it is fair to say, do not have happy home lives.

Nor does the Musgrove family. Lawrence (Sean Combs) has been on death row for years and will soon be executed. His wife Leticia (Berry) and overweight son Tyrell (Coronji Calhoun) will have to go on with their lives. Preparing Lawrence for execution, Sonny makes a mistake. Hank beats him; it is not spoiling the story to tell you that Sonny kills himself.

Leticia is fired from her waitress job and may be evicted from her home. Tyrell is hit by a car and again, it is not spoiling the story to tell you that he dies, too.

Circumstances surrounding the accident bring Hank and Leticia together. The two begin an improbable relationship, which is at the core of the story, in which Hank suddenly and simplistically forgets his ingrained racism, and Leticia forgets and forgives her husband's fate.

Yeah, right. Relentlessly depressing, heavy-handed and stretching credibility.

• DVD features: movie (112 min); commentaries with director Marc Forster and photographer Roberto Schaefer, with Forster, Berry and Thornton; deleted scenes; two features, Getting Into Character and Scoring the Film; trailer.