Monster's Ball

Death row in the Louisiana State Penitentiary is the hothouse backdrop for this hard-hitting drama about racist prison guard Billy Bob Thornton, who falls in love with the wife (Best Actress Oscar winner Halle Berry) of a condemned man he helped execute. Peter Boyle plays Thornton's hopelessly bigoted father, and rapper Sean "Puffy" Combs astonishes as Berry's ill-fated, "dead man walking" husband.