I confess that I expected much more from Blond. I have always been a fan of Marilyn Monroe and imagining having the possibility of understanding how she got all her success and fame made me count the days to watch “Blonde” in its premiere, on September 28 on Netflix.
In my mind, I have always believed that her life was difficult and she was not completely happy, but the movie just exposed the worst part: sexual abuse, mental issues and loneliness. The producers of Blond did not show all her achievements as an actress and kept implying that Monroe’s whole career was based on her body.
There are some good points. For example, it is inevitable to be in love with Ana de Armas, who plays the famous actress. Her look, voice and walk were similar to the real Marilyn, and her acting was, probably, the best part of the movie. Ana de Armas’s interpretation of the role managed to show how the person of Marilyn Moroe was a character created by a man to men. But the real person behind this envelope was only Norma Jeane Mortensen.
Blond has another good thing: the changes in the color on the screen are based on her feelings. For example, when she got married to Arthur Miller, she was so happy that the screen was all colored, but soon later, when she has a miscarriage and got depressed, the screen loses color. Unfortunately, most of the movie was non-colored. But it was kind of interesting the way they showed her emotions.
I really missed more information about the time she spent at the orphanage. It was there that she first married, at 16 years old, and the screenwriter did not explore this part of Marilyn’s life.
By the way, Andrew Dominik, who is the screenwriter, left some gaps in the story that really confused me, probably because he wanted to give a lot of details but ended up getting lost. This can justify almost three hours of the movie – which was a little unnecessary.
The scenes of sex and sexual abuse were very explicit. I understand the relevance of the drama, but the moment where John F. Kennedy, former president of the United States and considered to be one of Marilyn Monroe’s romantic affairs was difficult to watch. The scene was very aggressive and I truly believe that there must have been another way to show their “relationship”.
Also, nudity for nudity, without an explanatory background, trivializes the image of the actress. Her body is shown as if she were nothing but an object. It is like it is just a way to convince men to watch the movie.
After all of this, of course I keep loving Marilyn and all her movies. But there is no way to love Blond, Again, it is like they tried to kill her legacy, using her just as a blonde woman who got lucky and could not handle the fame. It lacked the presence of a sensitive and humanized look.
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The article above was edited by Isabela Novelli.
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