Martha, Inc.: The Story of Martha Stewart

I'm not a big fan of Martha Stewart. I'm undecided on the insider trading issue, and I don't buy her stuff anyway. But this film was just this side of slander, portraying her as a self-obsessed jerk who bullies everyone around her into doing what SHE wants. Forget the fact that she's an exceptional salesmen. Forget the fact she's one of the most popular icons in media. Forget all that and... well, you still can't accept the movie. The acting royally sucked (Martha doesn't sound anything like that!) and they went out of their way to get ugly people to portray her, whereas in reality Martha is quite an attractive woman. Slander. Sue 'em, Martha!

This is a fairly simple morality tale about what happens when you become an overachiever, when vaulting ambition demands ever higher achievement.

Martha in her demand to make a splash, ignores her husband and child.

If Martha were male, she might be looked on as a heroic figure who sacrificed personal happiness.

I have always been amazed at how effortlessly Martha creates domestic perfection. Here, you see behind the covers at the panic and stress to create that illusion.

The movie points out Martha was once a stock broker, so when she was nailed on insider trading, she could not very well claim naiveté.

Martha Inc. is actually worth watching to see Cybill Shepherd's take on the character. She really delves into the role and begins to show a sympathetic and vulnerable side to her. Sure, she's pretty and definitely intelligent, perhaps a genius. She worked Wall Street and modeled her way through College. She got married and had a daughter but domestic bliss was never enough for Martha. She wanted more and more in time. She became a successful Connecticut caterer. Even though she won't admit it, she is born and bred in New Jersey to Polish born Parents who immigrated to America. She was brought up in a large ethnic family rather than the small waspy family in Connecticut. Maybe Martha was no great wife or mother but she is creative and brilliant enough to succeed in a man's world. She has done it with class and brilliance. This movie does portray the messy divorce and the affair that broke up this longtime union. Martha may not have best people personilaty but just compare her to Barbra Streisand who is far more difficult. Martha is a perfectionist but brilliant and creative enough to establish herself as a household name. This success always comes with such sacrifice like a marriage and an estranged relationship with her daughter. Most men have often done this but why does it bother people when it is a woman? You go girl, Martha.

When I first heard about a year and a half ago that Cybill was going to play Martha I was excited for Cybill and Martha. I thought Cybill's career would get back on track and Martha might enjoy having such a glamour girl play her...however, as Cybill ages she becomes more and more campier--she hardly EVER lost her southern accent in her portrayal of Ms. Martha. Martha would never say "beauuutifullll" she would say "BEAU-TI-FUL". There are moments where Cybill actually does resemble Martha but then there are moments where she looks like she is about to have her gallbladder removed. Hey Cyb--there is such a thing as under eye concealer! Don't even get me started on TURKEY HILL (the name of Martha's home), it doesn't even resemble the real Turkey Hill. The score is a great supporting player in the film. Classic line--HEY S**T! Not bad--but Cyb should have worked with a dialect coach. Also, has ANYONE remembered the GOOD and POSITIVE things Martha has done?

First of all, let me say right out that I don't love Martha Stewart. I'm not a MS apologist. Hell, I don't even watch her show, because even I, half-brained cynic that I am, can discern that MS is essentially a product of the Wall Street/Madison Avenue/Corporate America hype-world. She's an invented hype-machine that gets people all excited about the infinite wonders of perfecting the "home living experience", and then... (drum roll please)... Corporate America is right there to sell all those many many products just to make that dream of perfection come true. The Martha Stewart line of products at K-Mart is one of the more obvious manifestations of this reality.

Be that as it may, I didn't like this heavy-handed "hit piece" of a film. It seems each and every scene was capped off with an emphatic little clincher to ensure the viewer was left with the thought: "Oh_My_Gawd!!! What a horrid stinker of a person that Martha Stewart really is!!! Ewwwww!!!"

Anyway, I thought the movie was a non-stop stream of hitting below the belt. I thought Cybill Shepherd looked and talked NOT AT ALL like the (real) Martha Stewart I've seen on t.v. (what little I've seen of her, that is...). As such, I thought the movie was unintentionally funny. I couldn't stop laughing at how absurd Cybill Shepherd looked, trying to make MS look absurd.

I would have appreciated more of the negative emphasis be put on the corporate hypsters that invent the Martha Stewarts in the first place. Also, I would have liked more negative bias towards mindless home-makers who get so damned obsessive about all those frilly, frivolous things in the first place. (I recently saw a PBS program entitled "Affluenza". That would make for an excellent follow-on viewing after seeing this film about Martha Stewart and the MS way of living.)

Anyway, a couple of years ago at K-Mart I bought a mattress pad for my bed. The Martha Stewart line. Don't know what the thread count is, but it is the most comfortable darned thing I've ever slept on. Thanks, Martha Stewart!