Brief Story Line
Movie started in the year 1933 when a 7 year old Norma Jean (Lily Fisher) was brought up by her mother Gladys (Julianne Nicholson - Mare of Easttown mini series etc) in a not healthy environment for children. After a while, a grown up Norma Jean (Ana de Armas - The Gray Man, No Time to Die etc) was able to acquire role in few movies using the name Marilyn Monroe and started to gain fame.
The film would then focus on Marilyn Monroe's personal life as she got close to two sons of famous stars, Cass Chaplin (Xavier Samuel - Tell Me Your Secrets TV series etc) and Eddie Robinson Jr. (Evan Williams - Versailles TV series etc) which was not well received by most. And subsequently to the retired baseball star (Bobby Cannavale - Thunder Force, Jolt etc) and later the Playwright (Adrien Brody - Midnight in Paris, Bullet Head etc).
And so how would the movie end? You can find it out after watching it.
End of Brief Story Line
This movie had sparked lots of various controversies such as the casting of Ana de Armas, the exploitation and even the first ever NC-17 (strictly for > 17 years old) rating for a movie released via streaming. Obviously for film that has this kind of publicity made me intrigued and had to see it for myself. Now being a person who knew very little about Marilyn Monroe's life apart from few of her famous movies, her status and that iconic picture of her in that white dress, I was quite eager to find out more of her.
When this movie started, I was confused why it has a 4:3 aspect ratio instead of the usual wide screen, but then I realized it was a matter of creativity and likely to provide stronger feeling of that period. As I continued watching, I felt the movie kept on jumping a bit fast from one period to another without context and it continued like that frequently till the end. I also felt the movie to be like a documentary where we were watching from the camera that followed her around. But the strongest feeling I got from watching this movie was a bit depressed. My wife actually warned me based on what she read on the comments of some audiences that most of them had the same feeling.
For 2 hours 47 minutes we were shown Norma Jean's life as she struggled from childhood years, throughout the time she started to gain a bit of fame, her tragic love life and many more. The thing is, this movie was based on 2000's biographical fiction novel of the same title written by Joyce Carol Oates. So it is a work of fiction and hence it should not be treated as a real biography (though some likely were based on real events). With such knowledge, it was hard for me to figure out which were real and which were dramatization of actual events. One thing for sure though, even if only few of them were true, then the life of Marilyn Monroe/Norma Jean was completely different from what I would have thought.
As a drama movie, this one did provide some dramatic moments which could feel bombastic and disturbing. There were scenes that were shot in black and white and many times I felt it to be like arts movies specially created for people who appreciate such attribute. Some scenes might be too graphic for most and that particular scene towards the end was definitely shocking. I think the director Andrew Dominik whose prior works included the critically acclaimed The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford was given a lot of freedom by the producers (one of them was Brad Pitt) to create the movie based on his vision.
In the end, I am sure this movie would be the subject of discussion for a long time and it would create divisive opinion among audience as well. For me personally, it was a unique experience but not necessarily the best one to view Marilyn Monroe's life as it was based on fictionalized biography. It did however provide me of an insight of things that might occurred during that period & at least I got to know more of the sadly too brief life of such an iconic figure who was adored by many (my mother included). Plus the performance of Ana de Armas that garnered praise from critics was brilliant and a joy to see. So if you want to give this movie a try, you just need to ready yourself for some of those possibly disturbing moments. The good thing is it's available via online streaming which allows you to pause and take a break when you are tired of the long duration.
Mike's movie moments rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
No comments:
Post a Comment