The Secret Life of Marilyn Monroe

It was such a nice change to see a movie of Marilyn Monroe depicting her personal life and struggles.I have read many many books on Marilyn and I thought this was spot on. Congratulations to Lifetime Movies. Also congratulations to Kelli Garner and Susan Sarandon. It was difficult for Susan as in real life Marilyn did not spend a lot of time with her mother. Apparently Marilyn always lived with a fear of inheriting her mother's mental illness. It was also nice to still enjoy a movie on Marilyn Monroe after such a long time after her death.I believe Kelli captured Marilyn's voice extremely well. I thoroughly enjoyed it and recommend it to others for viewing. Thanks!!!

I enjoyed this mostly for the stellar supporting performances by Jeffrey Dean Morgan as a much-sexier-than-real-life Joe DiMaggio, Stephen Bogaert as Arthur Miller, Tamara Hickey as Pat Kennedy Lawford and Susan Sarandon as Marilyn's mother, Gladys. They all made what is basically a run-of-the-mill Lifetime movie worthwhile.

Kelli Garner, in the main role as Marilyn Monroe, gives a breathy impression of Marilyn's famous speaking voice, but not much else. She never really conveys the conflict and pain of being Marilyn. It's like she's doing a celebrity impression instead of really becoming the character.

I know that it was made for basic cable and so they couldn't show much during the sex scenes, but it is particularly laughable when Marilyn and Joe DiMaggio are supposed to be having hot sex on a hotel bed but she leaves on her very visible granny panties and he doesn't even pull down his trousers, resulting in Morgan lying on top of Garner fully clothed while they grunt away. Surely the director could have found some way to make it look plausible that they might actually be having sex without offending the network censors.

Finally, an actress who captures Marilyn Monroe in all her mannerisms, voice, looks, personality (Kelli Garner). Previous Monroe portrayals are easily forgotten in light of this lovely reproduction of the tragic star's vulnerability, charm, sexiness & spunk. Why did it take so long? Susan Sarandon as mother Gladys is also excellent & typical of Sarandon's professionalism in playing a supporting role with grace and class. The other players are well cast where it matters most: looks, demeanor, voice, such as Pat Kennedy Lawford with a Boston accent. Joe DiMaggio is lean and angular; Arthur Miller smokes a pipe. Not to simplify the elements of writing and direction, but as I said, previous Monroe biopics have failed at the most elemental level: when Marilyn is in front of the camera, she'd better be a decent reincarnation. This movie nailed it.

This was an excellent mini series that did a good job stringing together an assortment of Marilyn's life, albeit not all of it. But my, that would be impossible. I think they did a great job at creating a narrative with what they could, and that Kelli Garner was absolutely wonderful. She captured the nuances of Marilyn in a way no other actress has quite been able to.

MM is a tough subject, clouded by 50 years of conjecture, misinformation and the subject's own spin and inconsistency.

That said, after 50 years of tireless reading and watching every foot of available film concerning MM, this is the first commentary worth viewing and rumination. There is something uncanny about Ms. Garner's portrayal and it matters little whether or not she looks like MM or not. No one will ever 'look' like Monroe anymore than anyone will 'look' like Abe Lincoln. She had the depth of character, the attitude, the walk and most importantly, the vocal cadence. Emily Watson and Susan Sarandon steal the show as they would wont to do in a project of this nature. However, Garner holds her own.

Robert Mitchum said it best about his friend and coworker when he said that Marilyn's biggest mistake was that she "burlesqued it", and burlesque was a slippery slope in Hollywood at that time. Monroe played burlesque so well, people believed it. Unfortunately MM was probably not equipped to withstand the foul misogyny that went along with post war attitudes toward any woman who was not properly corseted and house dressed, into submission.

If MM wouldn't have conjured the wherewithal to crack the studio system in 1950, she'd have ended up a depressed and divorced house wife in the Valley, with a mentally ill mother to support. For those of us who have dealt with mental illness in the family, this show is treading on new ground. That is the zeitgeist that Garner and Sarandon nail. MM was a fish out of water, which is the reason why we are all mesmerized to this day. For better or for worse she was her own woman, with no peer, before or since.

It is also worth mentioning that the costumes, makeup and set designs are spot on. The dreamy and disconcerting saturated colors and Noir lighting become good compliments to the spirit of the production and add good tension.

Kudos to Garner who did her homework and made this old MM aficionado squirm in his seat a few times, for all of the right reasons. DiMaggio probably said it best, by saying nothing and letting his actions do the talking.

Not perfect but well worth taking in, and a huge step forward from the usual Lifetime tripe.