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ageleni
Reviews
Marilyn and Me (1991)
Unbelievable, but still one of the best
Do I believe most of the things in this movie actually happened? Not at all. It is pretty well established at this point that Robert Slatzer met Marilyn Monroe once or twice, and that they were never good friends. (Allegedly, his number was not even in her personal phone book.)
However, I am so impressed by Susan Griffiths' portrayal that I can only take two stars off for the inaccuracy.
Not only is Griffiths the most accurate physical portrayal of Marilyn I have ever seen (indeed, other than a few bad wigs, she is often indistinguishable from the real woman), but this is one of very few biopics that portrays her as a real person rather than the character she put forth to the public.
Most portrayals are of Marilyn's characters. The dumb blondes; the sexy vamps with the breathless kitten voice. The real woman was nothing like this. In interviews she has a very soft, clear, pleasant voice, without any of the breeziness her characters had. She was reportedly very sunny and sweet, with a happy personality, and not the sad, used, victimized plaything who no one respected. Too many biopics show her as a tragic figure--no father, mother in an asylum, men using her at every turn, endless drug problems, divorces, and difficulty in becoming a mother. In reality she was so much more than that. I am pleased that this movie showed her in this enjoyable light.
In this portrayal, Marilyn knows what she wants and goes out to get it. She uses Bobby (a real figure in a fictitious story) to further her career, but not in a mean or vindictive way; she truly does love him. Sometimes things don't go her way, and she is disappointed or sad, but she makes things right again. It is so refreshing to see Marilyn Monroe portrayed this way.
The storyline is mainly fabrication. There are a few scenes that ring true to what others have claimed (her flinging herself onto Johnny Hyde's casket, her quoting lines from plays, her kindness toward the mother she was devoted to). But the main plot is pure fiction. Don't go into this thinking you are going to learn anything about Marilyn. But if you just want to watch an amazing portrayal in a lightweight and fun period piece, I highly recommend this.
Clown (2014)
Great concept; poor execution...and what about the baby?
I've been wanting to see this for years, and finally got around to it. The concept is so intriguing: A man dons an ancient cursed clown suit that causes him to absorb the original clown demon. The only way to end the curse is for him to devour five children, or to be decapitated.
The story and acting, however, did not do this concept justice. A man discovers that he cannot remove the creepy clown costume he stole from an empty store (and accidentally slashes his wrist trying to get it off), and he acts no more bothered by it than if he got a flat tire. A woman discovers that her husband has been possessed by an evil clown, and instead of being horrified, she is sad and desolate, like she just found out he is cheating on her, or that he has a gambling problem. People are more annoyed than terrified, like this sort of thing happens all the time.
The man organically finds and kills four of the five children needed to release him, and begs his wife to find him the fifth (which she almost does, before realizing what a crap move that is). He was almost there...they just needed to let him wander a bit more until he found one more, and the curse would be over. Yes, these are ethical people who would rather chop the man's head off than allow him to kill one more child, but still...
I really thought the unborn child would be the gun in the first act; something casually mentioned early on which would play a much bigger role down the line. I assumed she would have a miscarriage, and that would end the curse without deliberately causing a child's death. And he almost seemed to go there for a minute, but then that idea was abandoned. I have to wonder why they had her be pregnant in the first place if the pregnancy did not factor into the plot, especially since the plot involved the killing of children. The writers had a great opportunity for some horror there (even if the baby ultimately did not die, it would have been terrifying to see her grappling with the prospect of her husband eating his own unborn child), but they just dropped it. I have to wonder if some fetus scenes were left on the cutting room floor, as this seemed like such an obvious plot point.
The actors also adapted the typical horror movie cliché of approaching mysterious danger slowly and cautiously. When I think someone is outside, I freak out and try to hold myself together enough to investigate. This woman only showed curiosity. She also ripped her husband's nose right off of his face and they both acted like it was a bad cut--inconvenient and painful, but not the magnitude of HIS NOSE BEING RIPPED FROM HIS FACE. And what was the deal with people being hurt in ways that should have killed them (wrist-slashing, blood squirting from a giant neck wound) and just wrapping it up like it's a paper cut?
On the good side, I did love the history of the clown, whereby it was originally an evil character, which got transformed over time to become a beloved, funny character. Too bad this history is untrue; it was fascinating! (And I really want to read that book.) The pacing of the transformation was good; things happened slowly, and you could see where each small transformation was going. (For example, the red lines next to the mouth started out very subtle and eventually grew to the point of grotesque, one of his eyes slowly became pale, and he started growing claws out of one hand while the other was normal.) And Peter Stormare was absolutely amazing as the old costume store owner who had watched his own brother go through the same transformation, and understood what now had to be done. So the movie did have some good elements, and there was no part where it was boring. But overall I felt it did not live up to its potential.