Skunkyrate Gripping story with well-crafted characters

Clarissa Mora The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

Tyreece Hulme One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.

Kirandeep Yoder The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.

SnoopyStyle This movie takes a look at the iconic legend from two sides of her persona. Norma Jean Dougherty (Ashley Judd) is the ambitious small town girl and Marilyn Monroe (Mira Sorvino) is the construct after the plastic surgery. She had an unstable mother and an absent father. Her aunt left her in the orphanage after her uncle made a pass. In Hollywood, the married model Norma Jean dates actor Eddie Jordan (Josh Charles) and uses his connections. She vows to be the biggest star ever. Despite the good news of her divorce, she is angrily jealous of Eddie signing a studio contract. She's willing to sleep around including Eddie's uncle Ted to get ahead. Through Ted, she gets to big Hollywood agent Johnny Hyde (Ron Rifkin).This has the feel of an unauthorized sensationalized TV biopic. Ashley Judd is acting for all her worth in this one. She also gets really naked. It seems desperate. Norma Jean had a desperate drive and I can't separate the story from the sense of movie-making. Nevertheless, it probably has more reality than fiction. This is not some high brow affair despite the high brow concept of two actresses playing the same role. The concept functions well. Mira Sorvino does a fine Monroe imitation although it doesn't feel real. This does try to do a psychological conflict between the two personalities although I like more the Monroe as a smart calculating performer rather than a tragic mental case. Everybody wants the tragic flaw. In the end, this is a functional TV biopic but it seems to be trying too hard for my taste.

hot_in_pink_hate_red I've seen this movie 4 years ago and I loved it. The only thing I didn't like about it, was that they painted Marilyn as a s*ut and they included stuff that NEVER happened to her in real life. She WASN'T sexually abused by her foster father, she WASN'T stupid, she NEVER had a female doctor when she was in therapy, she NEVER hated being referred to by her real name (Norma Jean), and she NEVER lied around with various men who we don't have much knowledge of who knew Marilyn and were depicted in the film. Ahsley Judd does a wonderful job playing Norma Jean, BEFORE she become Marilyn. But her portrayal of Norma Jean AFTER Marilyn comes in is so tepid and cruel. Mira Sorvino does an amazing job portraying Marilyn, AFTER Norma Jean is gone. She shows Marilyn as the sexy blonde bombshell that she is, but shows her as an emotional wreck who was ALWAYS insecure and feeling like her career-referring to the end of the film-would never come back. I still love this movie and the only thing I wish was that they keep it as true as possible and NEVER included stuff that was unfounded and misconceived.

nobody I saw this at my friends house who said it was great so i watched it and i thought it was dreadful! who did the research? There were so many errors, the biggest one that bugged me was in the scene where she got her stage name, in the movie it said she got her last name from a president, wrong! in actuality Marilyn got her last name from her mothers maiden name (monroe) however in the movie and real life she did get her name from Marilyn Miller. The next at the end, it implied that she died in the bedroom, that may have well been where she took the pills that lead to her demise, but she didn't die there she died in the bedroom everyone knows that. Mira Sorvino usually is a good actress, but this was poor, she softened her voice, however she didn't achieve Marilyn's seductive, breathless voice and she portrayed her as dumb when Marilyn was as opposite to the public's opinion was smart and shy not like that. Ashley Judd however was interesting to watch as Norma Jeane, it surprises my why Ashley agreed to that movie as she has been in so many great pictures. Terrible film!

CharliesFireFlyAngel I saw this movie when it first premiered back in 1996 and I saw it again last night. I think that it's a good movie overall. Very good concept, screen-writing, and acting, but I don't even worry about the accuracy, because a lot of times in these type of "biographical" movies, theres always gonna be something different to it, especially when most of the people aren't alive to comfirm what is true and what's isn't.I found this movie to be very interesting more than anything else and times it seemed very depressing; was Marilyn that sad? Ashley Judd is very impressive in this movie and her portrayal of Norma Jean's involvment in Marilyn's then-current life, is one of the reasons that makes this movie so interesting. Mira Sorvino was also very impressive, but I believe that the only fault in Sorvino's performance was that the writter's seemed to portray Marilyn as a dumb blonde, when I believe Marilyn was not even close to that. Sometimes it did seem kind of disrespectful, but I don't think that they really meant any harm by it, but they should've known. Don't go watching this film expecting accuracy, I think that's what too many people are expecting. Go to this film expecting to hear a possible side to this woman's life, not for the absolute and complete truth, cause you will not get it from this film. The only place you can get the truth is from the late Marilyn herself.