Garbo: Where Did You Go?

Only worth seeing for the clips of her silent movies and for the fact that there are so few documentaries on Greta Garbo (the TCM one being far superior to this) but overall this is very much a mixed bag and overall a bit of a mess.

The lumpy paper mache masks used to depict Garbo's head are truly grotesque. A very strange stylistic device for a woman who was universally known as the Divine One and feted for her staggering beauty during her lifetime. Could they have not used still photographs? Ultimately, the repetitive use of these masks throughout becomes a big bore.

Secondly the narration by Noomi Rapace is dull and vocally she sounds far too modern to convey the thoughts of Garbo's in the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s.

The use of 'An Investigator' in a blonde Garboesque wig also adds nothing. A Louella Parsons or Hedda Hopper or even a Walter Winchell type may have been a better choice at representing the Hollywood of the time. Little to no mention of the Garbo mania of the 1930s or of Garbo's private life.

The good things are very few and far between: Some taped phone conversations from Sam Green, who was Garbo's walker; Scott Reisfield, representing Garbo's family; Mimi Pollak's daughter giving her opinion; and an interview snippet of Marlene Dietrich humbly declaring that nobody was Garbo's competitor, implying that no one at that level of fame or success in the 1930s.

Sadly it's a shame this documentary doesn't do Garbo any justice at all.

I love documentaries and was so excited to watch this and learn more about Garbo. This was extremely boring and provided mostly surface level information. More time was spent showing an actor holding a weird fake head in front of her own or flipping through papers than clips of Garbo. And yes, I understood the point of the fake head, I just found it an unnecessary waste of time. The film would touch on something quite briefly but wouldn't explore it deeper and would quickly move on. It left me constantly hoping for more but I was disappointed each time. Surely there is more information out there about a fascinating person like Garbo. Don't waste your time.

Disappointed. The Garbo mask scenes did nothing for this biography. They were distracting. The narrator was annoying. I'm not sure if she escaped from a mime college to exert her annoyingly stilted lines. I'm also not sure if her hair was supposed to be Garboesque. Made it through half the documentary then put the speed on 1.5. There isn't enough Garbo and there is too much of the mask and the mime. Garbo was alive when I was a kid. She'd show up in a news shot or film on occasion. So she didn't disappear. She out right stated she'd had it with Hollywood. Better to watch a film like Ninotchka to see how Garbo shone.

Garbo: Where Did You Go? Should have been titled Garbo: Where Did the Point Go?

This documentary somehow takes one of the most enigmatic stars of Hollywood's Golden Age and turns her into a dull, meandering mystery with no payoff. It spends nearly an hour trudging through her childhood and early life with barely any coverage of her actual years as a global icon. The decision to use a paper mâché mask on a stand-in Garbo (who looked more like the Jigsaw puppet than the Swedish Sphinx) was mind boggling. Even worse were the bizarre gum-chewing interludes from a blonde woman whispering like she was filming an ASMR video in a Brooklyn loft. When the film finally addresses her retirement in the last 20 minutes, it offers no real insight...just the same tired refrain that she didn't want to be famous anymore.

No notable talking heads, no revelatory commentary, and no reason to watch. After suffering for almost an hour, I fast-forwarded just to get to the part that was supposed to matter-and even that was a letdown. A true waste of time.

And no, this review doesn't contain spoilers. Greta Garbo died when I was a year and a half old. If that's a spoiler, I'd like to speak to your history teacher.

The people who were interviewed and the archived footage regarding Garbo were great. The use of the paper mache mask were creepy and unnecessary. Also unnerving was the platinum blonde actress who chewed through every seen she was in. Her acting was way over the top, and did nothing for the film. It appeared as though this documentary was the first professional job for the blonde and she wanted to make a good impression. She failed miserably.

I stopped watching about 3/4 of the way through the film because I couldn't take the mask and the platinum blonde anymore. I wish the film had been solely archival footage and interviews.