Aileen Wuornos was America's first female serial killer. A Florida prostitute, she killed seven men, and was eventually executed. Her story has already been the subject of two documentaries by British filmmaker Nick Broomfield (and very good they are too) but now her story is dramatised.

Charlize Theron plays Aileen, in an eerily convincing performance that won her an Oscar and utterly makes you forget that underneath all that make up there is a very beautiful woman. The story begins as Aileen enters a bar, utterly depressed and contemplating suicide. There she meets Selby, a young lesbian who seems strangely drawn to the older woman. Selby, based on Aileen's real girlfriend, is played by Christina Ricci with naivety and selfishness, a wonderful performance from an actress with great depth. In a series of extremely touching scenes Selby and Aileen gradually fall in love and run away together. But there's no fairytale ending here, when Aileen is raped and beaten by a 'job' she ends up killing him and stealing his money. Slowly her morality ebbs away as she kills more and more men in order to steal their money. I won't be giving anything away to say she is caught by the police and the final scenes see her in court.

It's a disturbing film, and the performances are excellent throughout, but the direction sadly is not so impressive. At times the film has a stark realism about it which renders the tale more direct, but occasionally the director slips in a couple of extremely stylised scenes that simply don't ring true and don't seem to convey any clear message.

It's a shame that a story as sad and fascinating as Aileen's should be documented by a film that turns it all into a tragic love story. There are extremely few references to Aileen's early life, spent abused by men and even living in a forest. There is also little reference to the later chapters of her life, during which she endured repeated trials and eventually descended into madness. The police corruption at the heart of the investigation, and the terrible fact that Aileen was executed even though she was insane is not referred to in the slightest.

Although it is a good film, it sadly just isn't good enough. Watch Nick Broomfield's documentary instead.