Ana de Armas’ fearless performance deserves a better movie than ‘Blonde’





CNN

The gap between a star performance and the film that contains it has rarely been greater than in “Blonde”, which features Ana de Armas beautifully capturing the look and essence of Marilyn Monroe in the service of a film. pretentious, heavy and long to the point of exhaustion. Netflix will surely get its money’s worth, thanks in part to its restrictive NC-17 rating, but the film’s merits run out long before its credits roll.

Adapted from Joyce Carol Oates’ novel about the Hollywood icon by writer-director Andrew Dominik (“The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford”), the film works on the premise that not only does the star frozen in time have suffered because of the men around her, but also because of society (i.e. us) eyeing her even in the pre-internet era. It’s not a new take or a bad take, but the tone is so self-aware and surreal that it blunts those ideas.

Blurring between fact and fiction, “Blonde” begins with very young Norma Jeane and her relationship with the mentally ill mother (Julianne Nicholson) who was forced to abandon her, returning time and time again to the idea that she never ceased to yearn for the father she did not know, while seeking to replace him with the famous men who courted, married and exploited her.

Norma Jeane is eventually transformed into Marilyn Monroe, but even then she constantly talks about her star character in third person, as if the image stands apart and completely separate from the human being behind her.

The irony is that while the New Zealand-born director strives to humanize Marilyn – after numerous films based on her life, including several for television – this version does a better job of portraying the familiar image by reproducing scenes from his films. De Armas and the staggering hair/makeup/costume work present these moments in such an eerie way (sometimes mixed in with images of Monroe’s co-stars) that you have to blink to be sure it’s not the real thing. .

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– Source: CNN Business

Ana de Armas Transforms into Marilyn Monroe in Netflix’s ‘Blonde’

Beyond that, the film drags on through unfortunate interludes of the actress being used and abused, oscillating between color and black-and-white imagery in a way that seems arbitrary. Dominik also distastefully deals with Monroe’s lost pregnancies by peeking at the fetus inside her, which becomes symbolic of how much of the film is overdone.

These excesses can’t entirely overshadow the fearless and vulnerable nature of de Armas’ portrayal, and she’s probably right to argue that the NC-17 rating (a board suggesting that only adults be allowed into theaters) is undeserved, being gave an equally pissed off rate that didn’t I didn’t receive it. Then again, the label seems on safer footing given the film’s overall sadness than its sexuality.

Several supporting roles are also impressive, with Bobby Cannavale and Adrien Brody as Monroe’s husbands Joe DiMaggio (again shown grimacing through the filming of “The Seven Year Itch”) and playwright Arthur Miller, respectively.

Still, “Blonde” is almost entirely de Armas’ show, and as far as it’s worth sitting down to, give it every ounce of credit. When she tells DiMaggio, “I’ve been happy all my life” in Monroe’s honeyed voice, the lie is as unconvincing as it is heartbreaking.

Netflix is ​​giving the film the now usual brief theatrical run after its debut at the Venice Film Festival, but homes are surely where it’s most likely to be watched, especially given its 2 hour and 46 minute runtime.

In a private setting, viewers will be able to take all the breaks they need to live the experience, but they won’t be able to escape the film’s relentlessly sinister approach. Indeed, once you get past de Armas’ admiring immersion in the role, that’s the only itch “Blonde” seems to know how to scratch.

“Blonde” premieres September 16 in select US theaters and September 28 on Netflix. It is rated NC-17.