Norma Jean & Marilyn

If you're looking to see the "true story" of Marilyn Monroe's life you're probably better off skipping this movie. Norma Jean & Marilyn takes great liberties with the facts in trying to spice up the drama. There are plenty of half-truths and flat-out non-truths littered throughout. But if you can get past that you may find that this still manages to be a reasonably worthwhile movie. It's not an accurate biographical account of Marilyn Monroe's life, it's a dramatization. And not a bad dramatization at that.

This is a movie with a gimmick in that there are two Marilyn Monroes. Ashley Judd plays the icon in her younger days as unknown Norma Jean. Mira Sorvino takes over when Hollywood transforms Norma Jean into Marilyn Monroe. But we have not heard the last of Norma Jean as Judd continues to pop up now and again as an inner voice so to speak, sometimes to encourage and sometimes to berate and ridicule Sorvino's Marilyn. The point being that young Norma Jean desperately wanted to be a star and refuses to allow Marilyn to screw things up. Suffice to say these constant appearances by her younger self do not help Marilyn's state of mind as her life begins to spiral out of control towards her inevitable sad end. The two lead actresses perform their roles well. Judd is pitch-perfect as the desperate, driven Norma Jean. Sorvino is pretty much stuck doing a Marilyn Monroe impersonation but she makes the best of what she has to work with. As presented here the character may come off as a bit too much of a dumb blonde bimbo to really ring true. Surely, for all the myriad issues she had, the real Monroe was brighter than she's given credit for here. But it's hard to blame Sorvino, she can only portray the character as it was written. All in all it's a fairly gripping, if not entirely truthful, drama. And having two actresses play the famed icon at different points in her life adds a unique twist. This is clearly no work of genius but if you're looking for a reasonably entertaining movie you could do a lot worse.

Three letters describe my expression of this portrayal of one of Hollywood's biggest legends:

W O W

Aside from a complete new look at the woman who awed even an American President, the acting is sumised as a powerful tug on my very own heart strings. Both leads are astonishing in their ability to encapsulate an American Idol while personally sharing situations & emotions that will grip everyone who experiences this masterpiece.

That's all I am gonna say... now- don't just go rent this one- BUY IT!

The characterization in this movie and linking together of the plot was not very well done. At certain points in the movie you wonder whether some characters are imagined or real. In essence the continuity from scene to scene is not smoothly done. The one thing I did like about the movie was the use of an alter-ego to give the story-teller's impression of why the Marilyn did the thing she did.

I must say that this movie was very interesting, and more than a little disturbing. My knowledge of Marilyn info is not that expansive, but I thought the movie glossed over/fibbed/forgot about some important stuff in her life and chose to focus on the drugs/abuse/breakdown side of her personality. I adore both Ashley Judd and Mira Sorvino, but neither were very convincing as Marilyn in my humble opinion. (Altho Mira had her voice down pat) The movie was entertaining, but I felt it painted Marilyn more as "deranged over the edge Marilyn" than "gifted star with problems Marilyn".

Well, being a big fan of Marilyn Monroe, and her life, I have to say this movie was not very good, and was a poor depiction of Marilyn's life. It seems that every other scene they did something wrong. I'm not picky, but facts are facts. First off, the way they had her die was completely and totally wrong. Second, they portrayed her as a dits who felt sorry for herself all the time. It wasn't like that. While she did have her share of problems, it wasn't as foolish as they made it out to be. I wouldn't rent this.