Review: Having a ‘Ball’ with Thornton and Berry

Geoff Carter

Friday, June 21, 2002 | 9:11 a.m.

There are no monsters in "Monster's Ball" (Lion's Gate Home Entertainment, $24.99), unless you count Billy Bob Thornton. When the camera isn't rolling, he's a terror -- he makes all sorts of cringe-inducing scatological jokes offscreen in an effort to make his costars crack up. He comes close to breaking Halle Berry with a doozy about Larry Storch's bowels, and when Mos Def asks why he drove his kids away with a shotgun, Thornton replies "They were in my septic tank."

These genuinely funny outtakes -- plus a classic in which Thornton revives his "Sling Blade" character -- add to the value of what is already a first-class DVD set. Many two-disc sets don't offer the value provided with this single disc: two commentary tracks, outtakes, a documentary on the film's music. The commentary track that features Thornton, Berry and director Marc Forster is worth the purchase price alone -- just wait for the tidbit about Jimmy Swaggart, and find out exactly how many pieces of wardrobe Thornton stole for his own use.

The extras provide a much-needed human angle on a difficult film. Thornton plays Hank, a prison cop who's trapped under the thumb of his bigot father (Peter Boyle) and is at odds with his good-hearted son (Heath Ledger). Berry is Leticia, a struggling mother whose husband is under Hank's watch on death row. His execution, early in the film, sets into motion events that will change everyone's lives.

Berry won a Best Actress Oscar for her "Monster's Ball" performance, the first for a black actress. She earned it. Her turn in this film is angry, sexual, sad and empowered by turns, and it's a rush to watch her. The film isn't great, but Berry and Thornton elevate the material all by themselves, filling in the story that the writers and director missed.

And, of course, there's enough laughs and character in the commentary to make up for any other shortcomings. Berry takes deadpan aim at Thornton, saying he wasn't on set one day because "you were off being an international superstar." And both Berry and director Forster speak fondly of the night Thornton invited them over for -- wait for it -- oatmeal.

"You make the best oatmeal," Forster says sincerely.

"It's all I know how to make," Thornton says.

"Monster's Ball" may be Berry's film, but Thornton makes something besides oatmeal very well -- he helped hew a picture in which Berry could play to her strengths. When Forster made the film, he couldn't have suspected that one of his stars would make history with the role. It's good that the DVD allows that story to be told, as well.