Aileen: Life and Death of a Serial Killer
Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment | Release Date: January 9, 2004 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
71
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 23 Critic Reviews
Positive:
18
Mixed:
5
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Christian Science MonitorDavid Sterritt
In addition to its own merits as a social and cultural document, Broomfield's film continues the welcome trend of more and more nonfiction movies finding their way to theater screens and attracting wide general audiences. Read full review
91
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
On the eve of Wuornos' 2002 execution, Broomfield digs deep into her abusive hell of a background (beatings, incest, sleeping homeless in the frozen Michigan woods) as well as her quasi-psychotic defense mechanisms. Read full review
88
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
No one should have to endure the life that Aileen Wuornos led, and we leave the movie believing that if someone, somehow, had been able to help that little girl, her seven victims would never have died. Read full review
80
L.A. WeeklyElla Taylor
It makes an eloquent case against the death penalty, especially when imposed on the mentally incompetent. For if one thing is clear by the time she went to the execution chamber, it's that Wuornos is barking mad, her eyes wild and vengeful, yet also, on some level, already dead. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesManohla Dargis
She was guilty, no doubt, but as this immensely moving film makes clear, Aileen Wuornos was also heartbreakingly human. Read full review
80
Film ThreatD. W. Smith
The pacing is perfect and there’s no shortage of interesting revelations, and let’s face it, there aren’t many more subjects under the sun that are more interesting than serial killers. Consider "Aileen" to be an essential viewing companion to its dramatic narrative counterpart. Read full review
80
Washington PostMichael O'Sullivan
Engrossing, educational, amusing and disturbing. And who could ask for more than that from a film? Read full review
80
Chicago ReaderReece Pendleton
Although Broomfield's grandstanding has provoked charges of hypocrisy, this is a genuinely moral work that raises unsettling questions about the haphazard application of the death penalty, and it's certainly more complex and affecting than the fictionalized portrait of Wuornos in "Monster." Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleMarjorie Baumgarten
It becomes unmistakably clear that Wuornos’ wretched childhood and young life is representative of a deep failure within American society to adequately protect our young and defenseless. This becomes part of the movie’s argument against capital punishment. Read full review
75
New York Daily NewsJack Mathews
The filmmaker's ego and ethics aside, there's no denying the power of Wuornos' behavior here. Read full review
75
Rolling StonePeter Travers
Shocking and indispensable viewing. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleCarla Meyer
Sometimes demure, sometimes funny and other times flat-out crazed, Wuornos was effusive and confrontational when Broomfield filmed her just before her 2002 execution in Florida. Read full review
75
Miami HeraldRene Rodriguez
Never buys into Wuornos' bizarre claims or questions her guilt in the murders. It does, however, make a powerful argument against capital punishment, no matter which side of the debate you happen to take. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeWesley Morris
Aileen is Broomfield working compassionately. Perhaps it's only because he knows he can't save Wuornos that he can offer her as she might have been: part wounded animal, part self-destructive martyr, and all tragedy. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterKirk Honeycutt
The most damning account of the failure of the criminal justice system in America anyone is ever likely to see. Read full review
70
The New York TimesStephen Holden
Presents itself as an anguished brief against capital punishment, especially the execution of people who are legally insane...But the timing of its release smacks of the very exploitation that Mr. Bloomfield condemns. Read full review
63
New York PostV.A. Musetto
A sobering, if exploitative, portrait of the real-life hitchhiking hooker portrayed so realistically by Charlize Theron in "Monster." Read full review
63
Chicago TribuneMichael Wilmington
Though one can question the movie's quality as a documentary -- Broomfield is a dogged but often annoying interviewer, and Churchill's photography is sometimes slapdash -- Aileen raises such troubling issues that it stays, hellishly, in your mind. Read full review
60
VarietyRonnie Scheib
It's the interviews with Aileen herself that steal the show as she insists her mind is being controlled by radio waves -- her Mad Hatter personality beyond the scope of Broomfield's disingenuous tone to interpret. Read full review
60
Village VoiceJessica Winter
Broomfield's investigatory technique remains a frustrating pileup of unfocused Q&As and misplaced credulity. But when Broomfield travels to her Michigan hometown, he pieces together a life blighted at breech-birth: a grotesque of abandonment, incest, physical and sexual abuse, pregnancy at 13, and homelessness. Read full review
60
Washington PostDesson Thomson
Wuornos was unambiguous about one thing: She wanted to die. In the end, that's the only assurance the movie provides. It's an odd kind of closure for her and for us. Read full review
50
The A.V. ClubNathan Rabin
Broomfield's documentaries present life on the fringes as one long, sick joke. The joke still works, but in Life And Death Of A Serial Killer, it leaves a bitter aftertaste. Read full review
50
TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonagh
Broomfield's film is typically self-aggrandizing but filled with unsettling moments. Read full review
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