Blonde

I am a person very much intrigued by the great Marilyn Monroe.I have seen her at her best and at her worst and like most people know about her life,her demons and her dreams.Considering we know all this,this movie seems to offer us nothing new.It fails to create the glamour of the golden years of Hollywood,it fails to portray the kind of Marilyn the world didn't know and worse yet the movie consists of more fiction than fact,and when one sits down to watch a movie portraying the life of one of Hollywood's greatest that can get pretty annoying(especially if one has to ask the person sitting next to you,"Did that really happen?")This is the first movie I have watched on Monroe's life and I awaited it with great anticipation.....but I was very disappointed.

Apart from Poppy Montgomery's good performance,the rest was unimpressive.The movie also left me thinking "Surely being Marilyn Monroe would not have been all that bad?"

This movie gives us Marilyn Monroe's life in the series of events that are most famous to US - the audience. They mimic many moments that we should know (like "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend," MM walking out of City Hall after marrying Arthur Miller, MM singing to JFK). Why? To keep us entertained by showing us just HOW much Poppy Montgomery looks like the wondrous Marilyn Monroe. And...she does. Poppy succeeded in this role because she wasn't intimidated by the part...and I read somewhere that she was always obsessed with Monroe, so that probably helped.

This bio is definitely not bad. It has moments of pure brilliance. One of the last scenes, where Marilyn is on the ferris wheel & she runs away from the carnival barefoot to the dark road - it was one of the most fascinating, ingenious scenes in the entire movie. ALSO, I was surprised by the kink-factor of this CBS television mini-series. Now, MM on the beach having a threesome with the insinuations of oral sex...it definitely added an unexpected element to the film. But it shouldn't surprise us, since her business WAS sex. That trait payed her bills.

"Blonde," by the end, portrayed MM as a rent-a-kitten. DiMaggio got her for a while. Then Arthur Miller had his turn. Did all these people just want ownership rights to her like she was some convenient muse that they couldn't exist without but ended up unable to exist with? This I don't understand. Was it all about her genetically impossible, intimidating high standard of beauty? A form of self-sabotage? Her life seems impossible, which can only mean she had some form of depression or paranoia (inherited from her mother). The film shows this well in the end. She was crazy. Normal people just don't live that way. That's why she is so untouchable and fascinating to us still - because we can't make any sense of her. She's a complicated, perplexing, confusingly self-denying girl that we can't get out of our heads. If only we could FIX her, we think. If only we put that missing puzzle piece in, then she'd be all right. Then we could have peace of mind.

So, was this only an act? Marilyn was smart...did she know this affect she had on people? Were WE her toys instead of vice versa? It would be a conspiracy, but I believe Marilyn Monroe was an extremely strong person that made fools of us all. If in fact she enjoyed any of it, then this was her strange fetish: to always play the role of the little girl. Her forever game of pretend.

Poppy Montgomery did a great job as Marilyn. The one thing she lacked, though, is MM's silent intelligence. But otherwise, it's very obvious Montgomery worked hard and did the part with a respectful devotion to Monroe...and it succeeded. And, I also believe, the character of Monroe must be a very pleasurable role to portray...so don't tell me that Marilyn Monroe herself didn't enjoy being in her own skin. I think she liked it more than we've led ourselves to believe.

Not a bad biopic - though, not being a fanatic, I can't vouch for the accuracy. Although long (over 3 hours) time passed quickly - borne along by the appealing performance of Poppy Montgomery as MM.

I've never see her before, but will look out for her in the future after this convincing performance. Interestingly, her portrayal of the younger Norma Jean seemed to better capture the essence of Marilyn's fragile appeal than the later scenes when she became "Marilyn".

As for the production itself, the script was effective (if a bit tame) and the inhumanity of the Hollywood Machine was well portrayed. The supporting cast gave workmanlike performances too - but with Poppy on screen in almost every scene, who's going to waste time looking at them?!!

I read Marilyn Monroe's biography when I was 20.

Her life is so dramatic and she is very humane, intelligent, artistic and sensitive,susceptible.Her pain and dream, eagerness for life, family, love,,, all of things touched my mind.

She is full of contradiction, and so many faces,,, her image betrays her inner self-like many others actually,,,but She exposed other people's eyes, always center of rumor.

This film is better than "Norma Jean& Marilyn' . That was boring. Ashley Judd, Mira Sorvino can't express effectively Marilyn's character. Poppy Montgomery reflects Maryilyn's more humane side, her loneliness and sensibility more persuasive.

This film's strong point is well describing her childhood. Her childhood formed, explained her later life. But her adult life, so many things abbreviated. And Marilyn is described as just very weak, nervous breakdown person. I'm sorry about that. I think She always struggled, made effort to overcome her obstacle. She is nervous but at the same time, very strong.

Anyhow this movie is a catalyzed of memory. I remind of her once again.

...unfortunately, so many people think of marilyn as a trashy gal who slept her way to stardom. as a marilyn fan who has studied her movies, read all the books, watched all the(good and bad)movies, etc, i'm afraid this is just one more instance of downplaying marilyn as a TRAGIC FIGURE. poppy montgomery was fantastic, i did not sit down to watch this movie with much enthusiasm, and except for poppy i was not disappointed. the book is a novel, and all the people who are not that familiar with marilyn as a person will think all this stuff actually happened. a lot of it is made up, with bits of fact thrown in so that we don't forget we're supposed to be watching a marilyn monroe bio. in "blonde" every direction marilyn goes in ends up with her either trying to overdose, or collapsing in tears. marilyn definitely had some troubles, but i don't believe that she was a naturally depressed person. she never stopped working, never stopped trying to better herself. too many of these stories just expose the downside of her life, and "blonde" took it to such an extreme i was totally depressed myself by the time it was over. to me, it was a t.v. movie of the week, saved by poppy's really exquisite performance. if watching "blonde" has piqued your interest in marilyn, then go out and rent all her movies, especially "bus stop" and "gentlemen prefer blondes." you will see that she was a uniquely talented woman, and no dumb blonde.