Blonde Review
9/10
Blonde is a film that has attracted more than a fair share of controversy. The critical reception is pretty much split down the middle. I can understand where the dislike is coming from. Throughout the decades we have elevated Marilyn Monroe to deity status. We feel protective of her legacy and who she was, despite never knowing her. She led a tumultuous life and died far too young. That combination of factors can turn a person into a mythical being. She stops being a person and becomes a symbol of Hollywood tragedy, a representation of how that system can destroy someone.
There was more to her than the ditzy blonde image though. She was far more intelligent than she is often given credit for. She formed her own production company and fought for better roles when she was getting typecast. Those parts of her life are not represented in Blonde, other than a brief scene where she expresses dismay at being paid less than Jane Russell for her role in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. The film is not interested in a beat-for-beat breakdown of everything that happened in her life.
This brings up an interesting question: How much truth do we owe real people in history? Most films that claim to be based on a true story contain some degree of fabrication. That rarely takes away from the quality of the film. The Social Network for example is a great film, but its implication that Mark Zuckerberg started Facebook to get women is absurd considering he was dating his future wife at the time. Aaron Sorkin likely did this to add more bitterness to Zuckerberg’s character to make him more jaded and unlikeable. Screen portrayals of Marilyn Monroe have been fabricated multiple times over the years. My Week with Marilyn for example is a fun film, but the idea that this young man in the film had a brief fling with her is dubious, to say the least.
Numerous historical figures have been repeatedly represented on screen in a way that distorted the truth. People don’t usually raise an eyebrow at those portrayals. When it comes to Monroe, I often hear people say we should let her rest. Like she is a tormented spirit who wanders the earth, yearning to ascend to the heavens, but being forced back to our realm every time her life is put on screen. An eternal Banquo at the feast. She won’t rest any better or worse depending on how many films we make about her.
To be honest, I am not a die-hard fan of Monroe. I have a lot of respect for her, but apart from the brilliant, Some Like it Hot, and The Misfits, her filmography doesn’t connect with me. I think our cultural obsession with her can be overbearing. We worship her as a modern Aphrodite. So, I didn’t approach Blonde with the mentality that this had to be a 100% factual representation of her life. I think a lot of people are viewing the film as a typical biopic and are let down by its disturbing and unconventional nature. One of the few film critics who really got the film in the same way I did was Mark Kermode. He described Blonde as a horror film, and he is absolutely right. This was never intended to be a typical retelling of her life. The novel it was adapted from by Joyce Carol Oates was, after all, a fictional story.
I understand where the vitriol against Blonde comes from. It’s a grueling film to watch, partially due to the nearly 3-hour runtime. I thought it was fantastic though. It’s easily my favorite screen portrayal of Monroe. Ana De Armas is incredible in the role. I’ve enjoyed her work before, but she blew me away here. Even though her Cuban accent did creep in a few times, she captured the essence of Monroe better than anybody. Adrien Brody also excels as Arthur Miller. The director Andrew Dominick has become one of the best filmmakers around. His previous work, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, and One More Time with Feeling are among my all-time favorites.
Part of what makes Blonde such a remarkable film is how it transcends the trappings of the biopic and becomes an unhinged psychological drama. It is a genuinely disturbing and bleak film to sit through. From the beginning, we are thrown into an awful scene where we see how Marilyn, aka Norma Jean, grew up. Her mother is mentally unstable. The way she treats her daughter had a strange disconnect at first and then escalated to become more and more shocking. This shaped who she was and sets the stage for her future. Norma has never met her father but has an image of him that her mother has framed as a reminder of the past. It is implied that her mother had a fling with a Hollywood star who then abandoned her, promising to return one day.
Flashing forward to Norma Jean grown up, she is assigned the name Marilyn Monroe to market her image. This name becomes the spirit that possesses and haunts her throughout the film. She becomes a vessel for this symbol that is Monroe. She loses her sense of identity as she is shaped by those around her. This disassociation from reality pierces her heart and bleeds her dry. As she becomes more famous and adored, Marilyn loses control of her stability. She has a fixation on her absent father and starts getting letters from a man claiming to be him. She even refers to her later husbands as “daddy.” As the film follows this trajectory, she morphs into a shell of herself. She stalks the halls of her home like Jane Eyre.
This feverish amalgamation of Douglas Sirk melodrama, Whatever Happened to Baby Jane’s unhinged escalation, and Roman Polanski’s macabre Repulsion is a potent mix. One that never veers into the camp territory of Baby Jane. It’s a combination that has rubbed many the wrong way. The film is bound to make people uncomfortable, especially with its focus on Marilyn’s fixation on her unborn baby. I have seen some people say the film is anti-abortion because of how her abortions haunt her. It makes sense that this would be a sensitive issue what with the recent horrific overturning of Roe v. Wade. I think people are projecting their anger onto Blonde . Portraying a woman in a repressed time feeling regret for getting an abortion is not making a political statement against anything. It’s just a part of her character and frames her declining mental state. I was not expecting the actual abortion scenes to be as graphic and detailed as they were, so fair warning if those kinds of images upset you.
I also want to mention Nick Cave and Warren Ellis’ score. It adds a wonderfully eerie and melancholy atmosphere to the film without being too oppressive. I imagine it would have been tempting to go full-on gothic with the music and veer into camp territory. As interesting as that could have been, I’m glad they opted for a more restrained and understated approach. . It highlights the psychological elements of the story as the film becomes more and more deranged and disturbing.
Blonde is not really a film about Marilyn Monroe’s life. Her image in the film is an avatar of fame. She is a symbol of the greater themes of childhood trauma and the loss of self. How we can be twisted and ripped apart by our unsatiated yearning for purpose and identity. How somebody’s persona can dominate who they actually are. There is a debate to be had about whether or not Blonde exploits her image. I personally think it doesn’t. It may challenge you and make you feel uncomfortable, but that is the point of the story.
Yet again, I think this is another example of people mistaking a portrayal of horrendous acts for an endorsement of them. Showing cruelty on screen is not the same thing as approving of it. This is a dark and harsh story that never tries to lull you into a false sense of solace. I wouldn’t blame anyone for turning against it early on. There are some moments where the jumps between color and black and white felt unprompted and a bit random. Also, the pacing with the barrage of anguish can be grueling to watch in one sitting. Those are really my only issues with the film. This is by far one of the most divisive films of 2022, but for me, it is one of the best of the year.
