Capital punishment

Monster's Ball

(2001)

What I remembered about this: the racial text, and the hot sex.

What I didn't remember about this: the function of the Heath Ledger character, and how universally transactional sex and even love are in the film. It's not enough that Hank (Billy Bob Thornton) is a white male and thus has two power-hierarchical legs up on the black female Leticia (Halle Berry), but his financial security and her relative poverty put him in a position to come repeatedly to her rescue. It's hard to hear dialogue like

"I want to take care of you."

"Good, 'cause I need to be taken care of."

A film more interesting than good, ultimately, and interesting in kind of skeevy ways.