The movie and the director tries but eventually it is just uninspired, shallow and melodramatic. You know you are in trouble when the narrative feels like a handful of disjointed scenes, with no subtlety whatsoever. Ana de Armas also tries, and actually succeeds in some instances of the movie, but she can't help it when the script is so amateurishly written and the sequences don't have a real resolution to give the movie the strength it needs. This is, definitely, one textbook example of "Less is more and more can be substantially less". The writer thinks "we need drama, so let's fill the movie with drama in all places, all the time". But that's not how you build drama. You build it when the narrative needs to. And when I say drama, I do not mean tragic moments, but moments when Marilyn faces some conflict. The director has this idea of, when something of this nature happens to her, she needs to either cry or have an outburst. Literally, at the end of almost any sequence. But that does not work, at all, because by doing that all the moments have a similar dramatic weight, and hence the narrative becomes flat, and you kill the drama. In fact, it reminded of The Revenant (2015) in that regard. Why not make the character more subtle, more three-dimensional? It doesn't have to pretend to be a tear-jerker all the time, because that's very dumb! Anyway, that's the main flaw with the movie.
The other flaws? First, the sketchy nature of the sequences. There are some big moments in the movie that are basically skipped over. The movie takes a huge leap into Marilyn's life and, in that lapse of time, many important things happen to her that you don't get to see, but they are referenced later. So when she mentions the first time she and JFK "met", all you think is: "Yeah, I guess. It was never shown". Another example of this is when she breaks up with Charlie Chaplin Jr. And Edward G. Robinson Jr. This is a very important plot point in the movie as she says to one of them she can't live withouth him. But later on, they appeared to blackmail Joe DiMaggio, as if there had been bad blood between them and Marilyn. And you go again "Yeah, I guess. It was never shown". Marilyn, as a character, becomes sketchy too. For example, there is a scene when she finds out Jane Russell is going to make much money for a movie than her. But the movie never showed Marilyn to be narcissistic, or competitive, or envious in any way. So, this trait of her personality is thrown at you, with no previous development whatsoever, and it comes and goes in a flash.
Second. The surreal/weird moments of the movie. You see, for some reason the movie often includes some strange "modern" elements in its narrative. One of them are the CGI-rendered phoetus sequences. And let me tell you: they are so repetitive and hammered in and unnecesary I cringed not few times. And they are included not one, not two, but three times in the movie! The second time around the phoetus even has a voiceover!! And Marilyn replied to it. Yeah, not kidding. Also, when Marilyn is drugged some background characters faces are badly distorted using some After Effects tool or something. It shouts "lack of subtlety" from the mountaintops.
And third, which everyone agrees with: its exploitation of the character(s). I don't know why, but the movie is obssessed with portraying all the characters as sadistic, or horny, or "controversial", if you know what I mean. Take for example, the scene when JFK is talking by the phone. What was the point of that scene, other than to try to feature another r*** scene involving Marilyn? And I could pass one or two, but when every people who is sexually involved with Marilyn has one, everything makes me believe that they exist just to be exploitative and to cash onto the sexualization of the Marilyn figure.
Now, it's time for some positives. For one, I cannot deny, the movie has some style and some identity to it. There's always this sense of dread and morbidness around Marilyn, and that adds a strange vibe to the movie, something I think these kinds of biopic need so bad. Also, I was much more impressed with Ana de Armas than I thought I was gonna be. On the other hand, there are some sequences that are very well directed and scripted. For example, when she is rehearsing a scene from "Don't Bother to Knock". I thought the camerawork in that scene was perfect and the final breakout of Marilyn's character was very well done. The initial sequence was really good too. I also appreciated some of the outbursts she has throughout the movie, for example in the "Some Like it Hot" scene. The final sequence could have been bombastic and in your face, as the rest of the movie, and it was handled good enough. Marilyn lying in bed, with only her legs in the frame, conveys a sense of calmness and subtlety of a tragic event that is much effective than almost everything else. The movie has its highs and lows but, overall, it's pretty mediocre, as it could have been much much better than what we got. 5/10.
The other flaws? First, the sketchy nature of the sequences. There are some big moments in the movie that are basically skipped over. The movie takes a huge leap into Marilyn's life and, in that lapse of time, many important things happen to her that you don't get to see, but they are referenced later. So when she mentions the first time she and JFK "met", all you think is: "Yeah, I guess. It was never shown". Another example of this is when she breaks up with Charlie Chaplin Jr. And Edward G. Robinson Jr. This is a very important plot point in the movie as she says to one of them she can't live withouth him. But later on, they appeared to blackmail Joe DiMaggio, as if there had been bad blood between them and Marilyn. And you go again "Yeah, I guess. It was never shown". Marilyn, as a character, becomes sketchy too. For example, there is a scene when she finds out Jane Russell is going to make much money for a movie than her. But the movie never showed Marilyn to be narcissistic, or competitive, or envious in any way. So, this trait of her personality is thrown at you, with no previous development whatsoever, and it comes and goes in a flash.
Second. The surreal/weird moments of the movie. You see, for some reason the movie often includes some strange "modern" elements in its narrative. One of them are the CGI-rendered phoetus sequences. And let me tell you: they are so repetitive and hammered in and unnecesary I cringed not few times. And they are included not one, not two, but three times in the movie! The second time around the phoetus even has a voiceover!! And Marilyn replied to it. Yeah, not kidding. Also, when Marilyn is drugged some background characters faces are badly distorted using some After Effects tool or something. It shouts "lack of subtlety" from the mountaintops.
And third, which everyone agrees with: its exploitation of the character(s). I don't know why, but the movie is obssessed with portraying all the characters as sadistic, or horny, or "controversial", if you know what I mean. Take for example, the scene when JFK is talking by the phone. What was the point of that scene, other than to try to feature another r*** scene involving Marilyn? And I could pass one or two, but when every people who is sexually involved with Marilyn has one, everything makes me believe that they exist just to be exploitative and to cash onto the sexualization of the Marilyn figure.
Now, it's time for some positives. For one, I cannot deny, the movie has some style and some identity to it. There's always this sense of dread and morbidness around Marilyn, and that adds a strange vibe to the movie, something I think these kinds of biopic need so bad. Also, I was much more impressed with Ana de Armas than I thought I was gonna be. On the other hand, there are some sequences that are very well directed and scripted. For example, when she is rehearsing a scene from "Don't Bother to Knock". I thought the camerawork in that scene was perfect and the final breakout of Marilyn's character was very well done. The initial sequence was really good too. I also appreciated some of the outbursts she has throughout the movie, for example in the "Some Like it Hot" scene. The final sequence could have been bombastic and in your face, as the rest of the movie, and it was handled good enough. Marilyn lying in bed, with only her legs in the frame, conveys a sense of calmness and subtlety of a tragic event that is much effective than almost everything else. The movie has its highs and lows but, overall, it's pretty mediocre, as it could have been much much better than what we got. 5/10.
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