Blonde

This may be called a fictional account of the life of Norma Jean Baker, and there appears to be mixed reviews on the accuracy of the events, as well as on whether or not Ms. Montgomery's performance truly represented Marilyn Monroe's hardships. I think the naysayers are paying more attention to the difference in the two women's physical attributes or lack thereof in Poppy Montgomery's walk and sexiness.

I have seen enough of Marilyn Monroe's movies and it is my opinion that Poppy Montgomery nailed Ms. Monroe's emotions and voice perfectly. The mini series itself was not very deep but some times a persons true to life story is not all that appealing. Having a mother who could not even take care of herself, is not a real endearing event to have to portray through a 36 year period which was the time of Ms Monroe's actual death.

What we did glean from this mini series is the physical and sexual abuse Norma Jean tolerated from most of the men that came (and went) in to her life. Drug and alcohol dependency was her escapism and Poppy's portrayal of the torment experienced by Ms Monroe came through as close to reality as possible.

I did notice the absence of any portrayal of either of the two Kennedy brothers (John F. and Robert Kennedy) who were strongly rumored to have both shared her bed. This may be a result of the strength that politicians and the Kennedy name still maintained over the studio to this day to keep the good name of the Kennedy's out of the tabloids and may well be the reason for Ms. Monroe's premature demise as alluded to near the end of the movie.

In summary, Poppy Montgomery may not have the physical attributes of Marilyn Monroe, but she studied well the mannerisms and speech of the famous star to provide a very accurate portrayal of Norma Jean Baker through her adult life, and the relationships with the key men in her life.

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.

...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.

I was going to blast this movie as completely garbage when I read some of the other reviews here---one in particular that said plainly and clearly that the viewer must remember that this is a work of pure fiction. On that basis, the movie has its good points. But fiction or not, the real characters in Marilyn Monroe's life are still portrayed here and not thinly disguised either. I often think a good movie is one that makes you think about it and stays with you after the ending. This is what happened to me, so I changed my mind about how I feel about it. I have been thinking about Blonde (a dull and unimaginative title---why the writers did not come up with something less lame is foremost in my mind) and have come to the conclusion that it does have merits. The actress, Poppy Montgomery, I never heard of her, but that is beside the point, does resemble Marilyn in some shots while in others, you are looking at a bad costume job. The wigs in this movie were horrible and so stiff and completely absurd in some shots. It was pleasant to hear the real Marilyn sing Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend, but Montgomery was no dancer and the dubbing was inconsistent. Still I praise her performance. She portrays the vulnerability that Marilyn had, but she does not give off any backbone--or maybe that is the point. I do not know if that was her intention to portray Marilyn as weak. Maybe her weakness helped destroy her. I do not know. I do recommend this movie, but with the warning that it is fiction. I never read the book and have no desire to. I have read many biographies of Monroe, so if you are looking for the real life story of Marilyn, this is not the place to start.