BroadcastChic Excellent, a Must See

ScoobyMint Disappointment for a huge fan!

Aubrey Hackett While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

Brennan Camacho Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.

Michael_Elliott Becoming Cary Grant (2017)*** (out of 4)This here is like many recent documentaries where the subject themselves tells their story. The subject here is the one and only Cary Grant who we hear from interview clips as well as actor speaking from an unreleased autobiography.If you're familiar with the life of Grant then I seriously doubt that you're going to learn anything new here. We start off hearing about his LSD trips later in life and then we bounce back to his troubled childhood, which includes losing his mother to mental illness and then reaching out to her decades later. We cover his move to Hollywood, his rise to stardom as well as various roles throughout his career.Other documentaries have covered this stories several times before, which is why I say there's really not too much new stuff here. What new stuff there is includes some home movies that Grant filmed, which are quite interesting and towards the end there's an interview with his last girlfriend as well as his daughter. Truth be told, I would have preferred more to do with these two ladies as I'm sure they had some great stories to share.As it is, BECOMING CARY GRANT does a nice job for those unfamiliar with the life of the actor but at the same time I wasn't really bowled over by the structure of the film. I think some of the visuals go a bit too far as the story itself is strong enough to hold the viewer's attention. Still, fans of Grant will want to check this out.

Ayal Oren The Cary Grant/Archibald Leach story is a treasure trove almost impossible to fail at. In fact it's such a compelling story that despite the failings of the director one does stay through to the end watching this tale. And personally I don't have a problem with missing bits of the story like other reviewers do or with the somber tone of the story. The somber tone, is an integral part of Cary's life, and as long as the director tells the story I think he does have the right to omit parts that don't fit into the story he wishes to tell.On the other hand I did find his pretentiousness very annoying. Having such a wonderful source material the director Mark Kidel had to show how he entered Cary Grant's mind and deciphered his innermost secrets. So he keeps on showing us scenes from Grant's therapeutic sessions with LSD pretending he knows what Grant saw there. It's groundless, pretentious and completely unnecessary for the story itself. But it's being repeated over and over again, and I found it to be detrimental to the movie

snelling If you are not compelled to keep watching, then the biography is a failure. This is a steaming pile of dung. I only stuck with it because it's freaking Cary Grant. They focus on the crappiest aspects of his life. The phony narration was very off-putting. God, what a torture chamber of missteps. Avoid at all costs. The sombre music really brought the story down. What a crappy biography of one of the most iconic actors in movie history. Made me sick to finish this.

FearlessOneDay Disappointing doc. Doesn't really tell us anything new about Cary Grant. The filmmakers had access to his private films, but present no context for us to interpret them. (Mostly shots of pretty actresses. Was he auditioning future lovers?) The footage of his mother is interesting. You can't help but look at her footage for signs of mental illness. He had serious mommy issues, but why didn't he have serious daddy issues, too? (His dad had abandoned the family and started a new family with someone else.) Betsy Drake recommended LSD treatment to him, which gave him great insight into his relationships with women. (i guess old-fashioned "talk therapy" wasn't cool back then?) When his Eureka moment happened, we aren't told WHEN. Before Dyan Cannon? Before his last marriage to Barbara? I would recommend this documentary to people who don't know nuttin' about him. For people familiar with his films and biography, not so much.