Obnoxious, smug, over-the-top....what else can I say? Marisa Tomei was the only one I liked. The rest of them, especially Adrian Brody, made me turn my head away from the tv screen and look at my computer until I felt they were finished with their narratives.
shareYes lol. But it was sort of entertaining all the same to watch them preen and over-emote as they each enacted their self-important "star turns". In the end, it distracted from the inherent drama of the subject matter, in a kind of reverse-anachronism; maybe if it was just their voice-overs with the excellent raw and stock footage playing, but no, every few minutes one had to endure watching the contemporary "stars" strutting around and gesticulating and looking more often than not exceedingly precious.
sharecuecredits- excellently said. I just suffered through this only because I wanted to see the archive footage of MM; stuff I had not seen. All of them were absolutely insufferable. BUT, the director gets the blame; she allowed it. And she even shot (I forgot who exactly) some of the actors, just for a moment, shrugging or saying "Ummm" as if that added anything to the movie.
Would have been an interesting documentary: take out all the actors and show the footage and interviews.
I agree. Most of them were a bit too much, some more than others. And yes, Marisa was one of the more sincere ones, not full of herself. Jeremy Pivens was also surprisingly low key, considering that I find him hard to take most times...LOL
You've done some bad things, sweetie.
The ones who were awful were the bigger named actors like Uma Thurman, Glenn Close, Ellyn Burstyn. I think the likes of Paul Giamatti, Tomei, Ehle, F. Murray Abraham, were all kind of low key and effective and added the appropriate tone and such to her words.
But I think the actors served a very important purpose. The tone of this documentary was more about how really serious Marilyn Monroe was about her work and craft, yet never achieved the critical success and acceptability she craved. Giving critically acclaimed actors the forum to voice her words to me was a compliment or perhaps acknowledgement that she was far better than ever given credit for.
Some of them weren't that great, but I did really like Jennifer Ehle, Marisa Tomei and Evan Rachel Wood. I think each narrator kind of took on the personality of the writing tone. So, Evan Rachel Wood got a lot of swagger, Tomei got MM's insecurity, etc.
I really loved Ben Foster, too. He's such a great actor, but it's still impossible to get the image of him as greasy art school loser Russell on Six Feet Under out of my mind.
Ellen Burstyn was the only one who belonged on here! As a member of the actors studio, old Hollywood, and the only one who actually knew Marilyn
shareInteresting. I thought everyone did a decent job, but Marisa Tomei was overacting and seemed the most pretentious. My girlfriend thought this also. I found this surprising since she was an Oscar winner. Oh well, different strokes.
shareI've come to the conclusion, without the narrative actors, this would just be another ordinary Marilyn documentary, with some interesting footage and a couple of interviews with folks she knew. There were some who were hammy, Uma Thurman comes to mind, but for the most part I felt the actors were there to honor in a way Marilyn's desire to be taken seriously as an actor and power in Hollywood, giving her words the credibility she never had.
I thought Tomei was good aside from the fact that her walking back and forth to me took her out of the dialogue.
I'm with you.
And with the oscar thing...remember Julia Roberts and Mira Sorvino each have one as well...and.............................
let's just say "Politics"
The actors reading her words was the most interesting thing for me. But I do wonder why they didn't get some recent big names who have played her on screen to participate.
1. BVS 2. Avengers 3. TWS
I thought everyone was great besides Lohan. She probably paid the filmakers to get in on this haha. Especially in an ensemble with respected actors.
shareIt took several attempts to watch this, because of that goofy bs of these actors acting out her words - it annoyed me too, when they wouldn't quote MM word-for-word, as was obvious when they'd also be showing her writings. Uma Thurman with her hands wrapped up around her neck was especially annnoying, and I had to look away when Glenn Close kept coming up on screen - especially when they'd have Glenn look into camera from the side...she is so revolting. And I didn't catch his name, but the guy from A League of Their Own who now has some giant growth on the side of his mouth - YUK. All of the "performances" were in a word - barfy. It was pompous and self-indulging and seemed to scream "look at me - I'm a thespian! I'm an ac-tor!" I've seen better performing at coffee houses! Plus, although I didn't personally know MM, I really couldn't imagine her reading her own words the way any of these people actually read them! Especially that lady who read recipes as if it were Hamlet! Stupid.
That said, once I finally could get into it, I ended up really enjoying the film - would've loved it, had we could've at least done voice-overs, as it was so distracting having these "modern celebs" over-powering the screen while I was trying to see around them to the photos & footage of MM.
"Are you going to your grave with unlived lives in your veins?" ~ The Good Girl
Your comment about Uma Thurman has me cracking up!!! I've always admired her performances, but I just cringed in embarrassment for her in this one. Maybe she was having an off day or something.
shareI only liked a few of the actors...I thought Tomei, Foster, Davis, and Ehle were decent. Everyone else was meh and I hated Uma Thurman's hammy readings.
It wasn't just the readings. It was the choreographed slow walking and changing camera angles that really got to me. I wish they'd kept the actors, and just done a simple reading or voice-over rather than the cheesy, pretentious th-ea-tuh performances.
"And then he started cheating...especially at magnetic travel scrabble."
I actually agree with you. I think having the actors as part of this was important. To me it kind of gave credence to the fact that Marilyn wanted to be taken seriously and respected as an actor, which seemed to be more the theme to this documentary than yet another book or movie about Marilyn the sexpot, the Kennedy whore, the empty headed bimbo.
I do agree that some of the theatrics done by the actors should have been toned down. Especially Thurman. What was she thinking? And why on earth was Marissa Tomei constantly walking back and forth each time?
Ugh, the celebrity narrations had me cringing every time (especially Tomei)
shareWould have been an interesting documentary: take out all the actors and show the footage and interviews.
They all made me cringe. It was a bad decision to use them.
Having said that, it was nice to see the footage.
I have a book with her journal entries and quotes, and one quote that I was surprised was missing in the film was one that summed things up quite a bit. From her orphanage she could see the Paramount water tower and she used to dream of becoming a big movie star. She said that other girls were all wishing the same thing, but she was the one who wished the hardest.
From her perspective as a child who had nothing and came from nowhere, and was in such close proximity to figures who loomed larger than life, they must have seemed to have everything and to be everything a person could ever hope to be. But without an infrastructure to support her fragile disposition, I guess there was little chance for a happy ending. Another quote in my book which I don't remember hearing in the film is one where she says her fame was the only thing she ever had and her fans were all she ever belonged to.
With such a fragile personality, it's amazing she achieved so much. She was so remarkably beautiful, and the camera loved her. She upstaged everyone without even trying. How fortunate we are to have her on film.
Always the officiant, never the bride.
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