Blonde stars Ana de Armas as Marilyn Monroe, Adrien Brody as The Playwright (Arthur Miller), Bobby Cannavale as Ex-Athlete (Joe DiMaggio), Xavier Samuel as Charles “Cass” Chaplin Jr, Evan Willians as Edward G Robinson Jr, Caspar Phillipson as The President (John F Kennedy), Julianne Nicholson as Gladys Pearl Baker and Toby Huss as Allan “Whitey” Snyder. The Netflix film is based on Monroe’s life with chapters adapted from Joyce Carol Oates’ novel of the same name. Andrew Dominik penned the screenplay and directed the movie.
It is an NC-17-rated movie and has a runtime of 166 minutes. The synopsis reads, “Based on the bestselling novel by Joyce Carol Oates, Blonde boldly reimagines the life of Marilyn Monroe, exploring the split between her public and private selves.”
Netflix’s Blonde Movie Review Contains Some Spoilers (Trigger Warning: Sexual Abuse, Physical Abuse)
Netflix movie Blonde starts by showing us a young Norma Jeane (Marilyn’s real name) with her abusive mother. After her mother tries to kill her, Norma ends up in an orphanage while her mother ends up in a hospital. The story then takes an immediate jump of Norma becoming THE Marilyn Monroe and focuses on the sexual abuse incidents and her controversial personal life. The movie has scenes in black and white and colour format.
The opening of Andrew Dominik’s Blonde movie on Netflix is quite impactful enough to grab your attention to know what will happen next. After the time jump, we meet a young and ambitious Norma Jeane who is looking forward to her journey of becoming Marilyn Monroe. Sadly, the studio head rapes her but gives her the part. Norma becomes Marilyn, wondering how it all happened.
Andrew Dominik repeated the number of sexual and physical assaults Marilyn faced in her life. She’s portrayed as a blonde woman with no brains. Norma has daddy issues and blames everything on ‘Marilyn’. Even when she gets pregnant the first time, it is implied that Marilyn is at fault. There’s literally a dialogue where Norma talks to herself, expressing disappointment and stating how she aborted the child for this particular movie.
When Marilyn gets pregnant for the second time with Arthur Miller’s child, there’s an entire sequence that shows how the unborn baby is blaming her for aborting the first child. I don’t understand the purpose of adding a scene like this, especially in today’s time when women are fighting for abortion rights. Why are the viewers constantly reminded to blame Norma’s choices as Marilyn for her life not being better?
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If that wasn’t absurd, Andrew focused on Norma Jeane’s daddy issues so much that she addresses both her husbands as ‘Daddy’. Often, we are shown a contrast between how good Norma is, but it is her Marilyn side that’s ruining her life.
Throughout her career, Marilyn Monroe was sexualised from a very young age. In the Netflix movie, Andrew tries to stress on sexualisation too. However, there are so many naked shots of Ana de Armas that the movie ends up sexualising the Knives Out actor. It is very uncomfortable to watch, especially when the story is based on a person who was sexually violated.
What’s sad is while we are constantly told how Norma Jeane’s life would’ve been better if she weren’t Marilyn Monroe, the blame is never put on the men who sexualise her. The movie focuses so much on her tragic personal life and sexualisation that it rarely discusses her professional successes. In fact, the actor side of her is shown in the end as someone who’s losing her mind and is no more in control of herself.
Ana de Armas looks as breathtaking as we have seen Marilyn Monroe in her movies and photos. Armas has portrayed Monroe’s pain and difficult life earnestly. Sadly, the extreme nudity undermines the ill-treatment Norma has been through. Often, Marilyn asks people around her if she’s ‘just a meat’ and gets triggered with anything that makes her look dumb. But Andrew has treated the biopic just like that.
Ultimately, you get an idea that Monroe’s life has been tragic. But it also makes her look like she was responsible for certain tragedies and was not much in control of her life.
Blonde Review: Final Thoughts
Overall, Blonde on Netflix is highly disturbing and sexually explicit. The movie does show us the miserable life of Marilyn Monroe. The makers hit the mark when it comes to recreating some of Marilyn’s popular photoshoots and appearances. But that’s just it. It is frustrating to see Ana de Armas sexualised so much in a biopic that “tries” to call it out.
The movie is now streaming on Netflix.
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