REVIEW Blonde – how Ana de Armas becomes Marilyn Monroe, to the music of Nick Cave

Netflix’s Blonde is the latest film about the life of Marilyn Monroe – or attempting to portray a facet of what was Hollywood’s most famous blonde.

I’ll explain why I used the word “facet” in a moment.

Blonde, the tough movie where Ana de Armas tries to be Marilyn

Right off the bat, I’ll tell you that Blonde is not an easy film to watch, especially if you have even a hint of sympathy for the female icon of decades past.

Ana de Armas plays the title role, and despite the fact that the actress has shown quite a bit of talent over the years, she consistently gives you the impression that she has no business being in that film.

Ana de Armas struggles mightily to get into character and at times over-zealously turns Marilyn into a “silly” blonde – which is proven, over time, to be completely untrue. To get an idea, you can always watch actual interviews with Monroe to see that the actress and singer was probably anything but “silly”.

Of course, we’re talking about a subjective opinion. I recommend anyone who ended up reading this review to take a trip to Netflix and watch the film, and then draw their own conclusions, whether or not they coincide with mine.

The Netflix-created film portrays, in a very European and non-commercial way, a profoundly sad nature of times past, but does so unfairly to its main subject, relying overwhelmingly on the artist’s supposed mental problems, trying, like all “the common man,” to explain her untimely death.

However artistic the photography behind this film, the manner in which the plot unfolds omits essential elements of Monroe’s nature, reducing her emotionally and emphasizing only certain features, omitting, tendentiously I might say, others. The viewer is thus denied the opportunity to get a full picture.

I have, however, two pieces of good news. First, if you like Nick Cave’s music, find out that the artist collaborated with Warren Ellis to produce the soundtrack. Second, despite not getting any media coverage of the same, you’ll get to see Adrien Brody as Marilyn Monroe’s second husband, Arthur Miller – a dot dot dot dot hit role.