Blonde is not going to be for everyone, and it will likely inspire pointed arguments among critics. It is controversial, sometimes too artsy-fartsy for its own good and, by the way, close to three hours in length.
You don’t have to like the film, but it absolutely cannot be dismissed. The performances are too good, the photography too lush, the art direction too authentic. In short, this is an artful film that will surely garner several Oscar nominations.
First things first, the rumors are true; Marilyn Monroe is played by Ana de Armas, a Cuban/Spanish actress who has a slight Spanish accent. Yes, it will pop out at you at first, but you will stop noticing and you will get over it.
de Armas is walking a tightrope with ease, giving a lived-in performance and mastering the breathy voice. It is a towering performance; brave, unreserved and something that should be seen and admired.
Based on the 2000 novel, a fictionalized biography of Marilyn Monroe, by Joyce Carol Oates, Blonde starts with a little girl; unwanted, unloved, a virtual orphan (yet not) who grows up to become the kind of icon who defines the very word “icon.”
The direction by New Zealander Andrew Dominik is in your face and demands your attention. He switches back and forth from color to black and white, images go from acutely clear to completely out of focus. The sometimes frenetic editing and camera swishing and aspect ratio changes call to mind something like Oliver Stone’s Natural Born Killers.
Dominik’s opus is both maddening and mesmerizing. You can’t look away, even as the narrative is 90% tragedy and 10% everything else – you stick with it. Because Oates intentionally did not use actual names of the people in Monroe’s life – it helps to know her history before going in.
For instance, Bobby Cannavale plays Joe DiMaggio – one of the most famous athletes on the planet at the time Monroe married him. Their marriage was brief and tempestuous. DiMaggio watched her film the famous scene where her white skirt billows up from the subway’s breeze, fuming and embarrassed. He took his feelings out on her a little later. Cannavale, head cocked but perfectly still – delivers a terrific performance.
Adrian Brody plays playwright Arthur Miller, the other super famous husband with whom Monroe was married for a short time, and he is even better. My favorite scene is when he and Marilyn are discussing Dostoyevsky and she drops an insight that had never occurred to him, and she showed a much deeper intelligence than he’d have ever thought possible. It’s a few minutes of gold.
I have not taken you through an A to Z timeline, and I won’t. I will simply say that this is a wild and weird, yet moving and entertaining film. Did I like everything Dominick did? No, I didn’t. A POV shot from inside Marilyn as we see a speculum enter her was a bit much. Several different scenes featuring a fetus in the womb—didn’t need so much of that, either. There are moments where you want to say, “Bro, let’s cut back on the excesses and get back on track.”
But taken as a whole, Blonde is worthy of praise 3 ½ out of 4 stars | Nudity, Strong Sexual Content
Begins Streaming on Netflix September 28th
