The Secret Life of Marilyn Monroe

This is a rather shoddy production that at times seems outright exploitation. Kelli Garner is not much of an actress, looks nothing like Monroe, and does a terrible imitation of her iconic voice. Susan Sarandon is surprisingly bad in the role of her mentally ill mother and it's some of the worst work she has ever done. The other actors do what is required of them and while this is all interesting at times, overall it isn't very enlightening. The standout in all of this is Emily Watson as Marilyn's aunt. As is often the case, Watson rises above a travesty and walks out of the ruins with her head held high. Wells she might for she not only gives a superb performance but brings a touch of real class to the proceedings. She gives her part a depth and humanity that's absent in the other characters that populate this film. For her moving and beautiful portrayal alone this lackluster mess is awarded 6 additional stars to the 2 it deserves on its own merits.

MM is a tough subject, clouded by 50 years of conjecture, misinformation and the subject's own spin and inconsistency.

That said, after 50 years of tireless reading and watching every foot of available film concerning MM, this is the first commentary worth viewing and rumination. There is something uncanny about Ms. Garner's portrayal and it matters little whether or not she looks like MM or not. No one will ever 'look' like Monroe anymore than anyone will 'look' like Abe Lincoln. She had the depth of character, the attitude, the walk and most importantly, the vocal cadence. Emily Watson and Susan Sarandon steal the show as they would wont to do in a project of this nature. However, Garner holds her own.

Robert Mitchum said it best about his friend and coworker when he said that Marilyn's biggest mistake was that she "burlesqued it", and burlesque was a slippery slope in Hollywood at that time. Monroe played burlesque so well, people believed it. Unfortunately MM was probably not equipped to withstand the foul misogyny that went along with post war attitudes toward any woman who was not properly corseted and house dressed, into submission.

If MM wouldn't have conjured the wherewithal to crack the studio system in 1950, she'd have ended up a depressed and divorced house wife in the Valley, with a mentally ill mother to support. For those of us who have dealt with mental illness in the family, this show is treading on new ground. That is the zeitgeist that Garner and Sarandon nail. MM was a fish out of water, which is the reason why we are all mesmerized to this day. For better or for worse she was her own woman, with no peer, before or since.

It is also worth mentioning that the costumes, makeup and set designs are spot on. The dreamy and disconcerting saturated colors and Noir lighting become good compliments to the spirit of the production and add good tension.

Kudos to Garner who did her homework and made this old MM aficionado squirm in his seat a few times, for all of the right reasons. DiMaggio probably said it best, by saying nothing and letting his actions do the talking.

Not perfect but well worth taking in, and a huge step forward from the usual Lifetime tripe.

I have to agree with the previous reviewer, jlthornb51. This production was shoddy and a great waste of my time. I kept hoping it would get better, but it seemed to get worse and worse. No offense to Kelli Garner, but much of the fault seems to lie with her "terrible imitation of MM's iconic voice" as jlthornb51 put it, along with her lack of acting skills. Any potential was ruined by the poor casting of Kelli Garner coupled with her much too superficial performance. Susan Sarandon's role seemed a little bit overplayed, but not terrible. Emily Watson gave a decent performance which had to be difficult to pull off, given all the other deficiencies she faced from the script to being forced to play against depthless performances of the other actors. Kudos to Emily Watson for pulling off a positive performance in the face of the otherwise boring overplayed production. Kelli Garner's superficial acting was almost like a caricature of MM, ruining the entire mini-series.

It was such a nice change to see a movie of Marilyn Monroe depicting her personal life and struggles.I have read many many books on Marilyn and I thought this was spot on. Congratulations to Lifetime Movies. Also congratulations to Kelli Garner and Susan Sarandon. It was difficult for Susan as in real life Marilyn did not spend a lot of time with her mother. Apparently Marilyn always lived with a fear of inheriting her mother's mental illness. It was also nice to still enjoy a movie on Marilyn Monroe after such a long time after her death.I believe Kelli captured Marilyn's voice extremely well. I thoroughly enjoyed it and recommend it to others for viewing. Thanks!!!

I was glad that when plot involving the mental side of Marilyn the movie didn't include any wield scenes about mental hospitals. Some trivia about mental hospitals. Most of or even possibly all of the people admitted to a mental hospital smoke cigarettes. That to me should be a near secondary concern next to other health issues cigarettes have on the body but is ignored mostly by all the worldly public. Most mental people on a day to day basis cope with being there almost as well as any student in a regular school so on that level it's difficult to tell the difference between whatever intense crazy and normal. Mental drugs vary from intense effect with the thought of how did they ever get legal to others with very little or no effect all. A very popular approved mental drug with no effect is paliperidone, the most being a feeling of a gentler emotion, gentler more so with the injection style compared to the pill style and it costs $1800 to $2900 for a 90 day supply. Enough of that. I have the Marilyn movie on DVD transferred to PC hard drive. The first time I watched it non stop from beginning to end and I've sorta watched the beginning for a second time. The movie is entertaining and Kelly does a good job being Marilyn, her voice being very likable. Susan does a good good as her mother and she is a very believable mental patient. One goes away from the movie with a much greater understanding of Marilyn's private life. I'm glad I have the movie memory.