The final movie I saw this weekend was the Documentary
"Love, Marilyn." I'm really bummed about missing
Ginger & Rosa, which was in its last screening this evening, but I ended up getting called away at the last minute, and missed it. Sad times.
Love, Marilyn was a re-telling of the Marilyn Monroe story, this time through personal journals, letters, and poetry that were recently unearthed. Well-known actors performing Marilyn's writings as monologues were interspersed with interviews with close friends and photos and video of Marilyn while she was alive.
Honestly, I haven't ever been that interested in Marilyn Monroe. She did a few great movies, and was really stunning, but I have always thought of her as being pretty dull. However, I ended up really liking this movie. I didn't realize how much I didn't know about M.M. It feels like her story is part of our zeitgeist, but there were a bunch of details that I enjoyed hearing about.
For example, I did not know that she had attempted suicide, and was put in a psychiatric hospital for six days and left against medical advice not too long before she died.
That's so upsetting to me.
A few people in the audience scoffed when a statement was read that was put out by the psychiatric hospital after her death, stating that if she had been allowed to stay there, she may not have died. And, you know, there is some speculation about whether her death was a suicide or accidental overdose, but either way, I wonder. I think the scoffing was at the idea that someone like Marilyn Monroe would be subjected to a psychiatric hospital. I think that's sad. She was suicidal and on narcotics. It's not glamorous, but that's where she would get help for those things. She clearly wasn't getting the kind of help she needed elsewhere.
There was a weird undertone of a romanticizing of her death in this movie. It was really frustrating for me, because I think people don't think of her as having been a real person. And in some ways, it seems like we expect young beautiful women to either die or disappear before they become old and no longer of use to the general public. That really kind of rages me out.
I would like to have seen her old, crazy, chain-smoking and slowly growing mold in her palatial estate. Receiving the Cecil B. Demille award, or popping up as a cameo in an episode of the Nanny. But, that's probably just me.
My biggest problem with the presentation in this movie was the monologue aspect. There were about 15 actors that read parts as either Marilyn or other key figures, but only 3 of the monologists were watchable, in my opinion. The rest were uncomfortable, in that they were TRYING SO HARD to act.
At one point, Lili Taylor gave a dramatic, anxiety-filled reading of Marilyn's recipe for cooking a turkey.
NO JOKE. It was embarrassing to watch.
The good performances were pulled off mostly by the actors reading the non-Marilyn roles, such as Oliver Platt, Paul Giamatti, and Ben Foster. The reason for that seems really obvious to me. Marilyn was writing in a journal, and that style of writing really doesn't translate to dramatic monologue very well. Also, monologues are like watching someone go poop: There's a chance it will be good, but usually it just stinks. (Ba-da-BING!)
Having said that, Glenn Close killed it as Marilyn. They should have just let her do the whole thing.
Some of the more disastrous Marilyns included Lindsey Lohan (in HORRIFYING bleached out hair and prostitute makeup), Marisa Tomei, and Uma Thurman.
A small bit of tension was relieved during the end credits, when they showed outtakes from the monologist's more embarrassing attempts at delivering their lines. However, that was too little, too late.
It's unfortunate, too, because if I had been watching this at home, I never would have made it past the first 20 minutes, which were the most monologue-filled. The second half of the movie is where all the good stuff is hiding.
I recommend this movie if you're a die-hard Marilyn Monroe fan, or if you have Netflix Streaming in about six months, because I'm sure it will end up on there.
Peggy's Rating: Three out of Five Stars.
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