The Brittany Murphy Story

Finally, a Lifetime Original Movie achieves Ed Wood-Tommy Wiseau levels of awfulness. The Brittany Murphy Story isn't merely offensive to Ms Murphy's fans, or to lovers of good biopics; it's awful on any level you can name. This movie features production values lower than you'll find in most home movies, and dialogue pulled from a Victorian melodrama (example, the line "broken hearts strewn on both sides of the Atlantic" -- really!).

Amanda Fuller looks and sounds nothing like Ms Murphy, but that didn't stop the producers from casting her. Sherilyn Fenn answers the obscure question "what happened to the hot girl from Twin Peaks" with a firm "Believe me, you don't want to know." The Simon Monjack character vacillates between deserving a halo, and deserving a long stretch in Leavenworth.

I can't remember having more joy watching a DVD, but then again, I have a strong streak of masochism.

I will say right up front, I only watched 22 minutes of this atrocity. I gave up when they got to the Alicia Silverstone "character". Seriously?! They couldn't find ONE SINGLE BLONDE ACTRESS to play the part? Instead, they appear to have grabbed some girl off the street and plopped a really, really, really bad blonde wig on her head. Did I mention how BAD the wig was. This movie is just a complete failure. Amanda Fuller sounded more like Tai from Clueless than Brittany Murphy. Frankly, the girl who played Morgan looks more like Brittany. Do yourself and your brain cells a favor and skip this steaming pile of garbage. I would have given it 0 stars if that was an option.

What a disgrace. This movie might be all right if it had no connection to any real people (though it would still be a poor one), but as a biography of Brittany Murphy it's almost unwatchable. Everything is bad.

What's with the choice of actress? She doesn't look anything like Brittany, she doesn't act like her, she has no charisma (which Brittany had plenty of)... What's going on? Some other characters in the movie look and act more like Brittany than Amanda Fuller does. Chloë Crampton who plays her friend would have been a better choice. Watching that round face, I had to constantly remind myself who it's supposed to represent because there was just no resemblance.

I don't really know anything about Brittany's real life, but I really doubt she was this lame when in the movies she was so cool. It just doesn't add up. I feel like Amanda Fuller has never even seen any of Brittany's movies.

Acting is overall pretty bad. A biography of a famous person should not be a B movie with poor actors.

The movie completely fails to build up atmosphere for emotional scenes, so they just end up looking artificial and ridiculous. Crappy, boring music doesn't help either. Everything feels fake. Cheap melodrama.

A girl with a really bad wig representing Alicia Silverstone wasn't even funny.

Brittany's biography deserves a decent script and cast. This is just a bad joke.

Saw this film tonight on TV and decided to watch it because I am big Brittany Murphy fan. I watched the entire movie and was blown away.

The actress looks and acts nothing like Brittany Murphy in anyway. I doubt if you could hire someone who could do justice to Brittany's magnetism on a small budget, but you could at least hire an actor with a similar face/body shape. My god, I shouldn't have to keep reminding myself that this is supposed to be Brittany Murphy on screen.

The actor playing her husband was creepy as all hell, when he came on screen i though "okay, this is clearly the manipulative creep in the story" and it seemed like it was going that way. Nothing really came out of that though, so why hire an actor that the audience dislikes the entire time he is on screen? The intimate scenes were disturbing!

This movie was made in 2014, and yet they leave her extremely suspicious death to 4-6 minutes of screen time? followed by a direct quote from Wikipedia as a epilogue?

Rest in peace Brittany, I'm sorry they did this to your life story.

Perky student Amanda Fuller (as Brittany Murphy) acts poorly in a high school stage show. Nevertheless, she is seen by a TV ad producer and quickly becomes successful making commercials - they say it's because she looks average. Hoping to become a real actress, Ms. Fuller demands single mom Sherilyn Fenn (as Sharon) move from New Jersey to Los Angeles, CA. Very quickly, Fuller's "Brittney" lands a guest-starring role on "Murphy Brown" - then, she is off and running. Now a big TV star, "Brittney" wants to be in films. So, she becomes a sensation in "Clueless". But all is not well. Fuller's "Brittney" receives a smile from a young model-type hunk on the set, but he calls her a "chunky monkey." In spite of her pounds, Fuller lands in bed with hunky Adam Hagenbuch (as Ashton Kutcher)...

Photographers swarm around "Brittney". One of them tells her the paparazzi are not real friends - that's quite a revelation...

The "Clueless" star eventually learns photographer Eric Petersen (as Simon Monjack) was correct. Over the years, they become chunky chums. All of it ends up in the teaser scene we see opening this movie. We're told this TV and film star was possibly poisoned. Yet, during the running time, there is no poisoning. That's fine, but don't suggest it again in the closing. One of the big problems with this biography - and there are many - it that the star is the most uninteresting character in the drama. Her mother and "Simon" are more interesting. Director Joe Menendez and his crew occasionally move the players around well, but it's all episodic - there is no connecting tissue. The star's rise seems to happen overnight, and no particular skills are shown. We are left to wonder why this person warranted a movie at all.

** The Brittany Murphy Story (9/6/14) Joe Menendez ~ Amanda Fuller, Sherilyn Fenn, Eric Petersen, Adam Hagenbuch