Love, Marilyn

Love Marilyn is a documentary based on recently discovered diaries and letters of Marilyn Monroe written throughout her career.  Her writings poignantly reflected her personal struggle and growth through adversity, both self made, and those imposed by society and the film industry of the time. 

Many actors do an amazing job reading selections from the documents and bringing them to life.  The readings are interspersed with historical film clips and interviews with surviving colleagues. The result was a sympathetic portrayal and we agreed we learned a great deal about her ambitions, challenges and self-doubts.  She benefited from her sexual image, but was also stereotyped and imprisoned by it.  Directors and producers refused take her dramatic talents or ambitions seriously.   She struggled to move beyond the sexpot image.  We discussed the unjust sexism of that time and how she both developed and was stunted by her public persona. 

We also discussed how an early life of being bounced from one foster home to another contributed to her lack of confidence and insecurities.  Finally, we thought that writing the extensive diaries and notes provided an outlet for her to escape the frustrations of her work and to validate herself.   She seems to have found peace at the end.  She was released from the limitations imposed on her by the film making industry.  The last contract she signed before her death was worth millions; finally, a recognition of her true value, the true worth she so valiantly fought for.

We enjoyed the film and found the technique of having different readers for different portions of the diaries to be effective.  We gave it an average rating of 3.5 (out of 5). 

Roslyn Moorhead