Viewed – 01 October 2022 Netflix

I won’t say I’m an expert on the career or life of legendary Hollywood star Marilyn Monroe, yet I approached this movie with some caution as I’d heard it was more an ‘Inspired by true events’ take than a full on biopic. However it wasn’t long until I began to get a feel for the woman and her image as actress Ana De Armas (Knives Out) stepped into her shoes and truly became the iconic sex symbol.

Charting the life of Norma Jean Baker, who would eventually transform into Marilyn Monroe, this details a troubled childhood with a mentally ill mother, through to her attempts to become an actress and eventually super-stardom. Along the way we have Hollywood producers sleazing over her and making her do ‘things’ just to get a part, a ménage a trois relationship with Charlie Chaplin jr, through to her marriages with ex-baseball star Joe DiMaggio & play-write Arthur Miller (even though names are changed here).

Having read up on the life of the actress since, in many ways, this gives a good interpretation of Marilyn’s life (with some deviations), and other than sections detailing abortions and sexual abuse, both of which are not exactly stretches to imagine happening, I came away feeling I’d had an education. Director Andrew Dominik has delivered a haunting yet absorbing experience with a stunning & uncanny central performance from Ana De Armas (who surely deserves an Oscar nom). His creative approach to editing, camera work, the use of various types of film stock, aspect ratios and camera lenses all helped convey the fragile psychology and tragedy of Marilyn – and for me raised this movie into something rather mesmerising. It doesn’t cover everything, and I’d have preferred some of the more gratuitous aspects were toned down, as it can get quite graphic … but overall this was powerful viewing.

Verdict: Recommended