In Theaters

Love, Marilyn

Movie Details

  • Genre: Documentary
  • Release Date: 2012-11-30 NY
  • Running Time: 105 min.
  • Director: Liz Garbus
  • Cast: Ben Foster, Paul Giamatti, Marisa Tomei, Evan Rachel Wood, Elizabeth Banks, Uma Thurman, Jeremy Piven, Viola Davis, Adrien Brody, Lindsay Lohan
  • Producers: Amy Hobby, Liz Garbus, Stanley Buchthal
  • Distributor: Independent Pictures

"[Marilyn] Monroe was an infinity of character and mystery that was impossible for me, or anyone else, to explore, because it was so vast. There is always more and more and more," Maurice Zolotow, one of the first (of scores) of biographers of the screen legend, once said. Fifty years after her death, the actress's corpse is still being picked over with ever-diminishing returns, as evidenced in Liz Garbus' garish, misguided documentary Love, Marilyn. As the film's structuring conceit, actresses "perform" Monroe's recently unearthed cache of letters and notes to herself (which were published two years ago as Fragments) while clips from her films or news footage of M.M. plays behind them. This histrionic ventriloquism (the worst offenders: Marisa Tomei, Uma Thurman) turns Monroe's life into The Vagina Monologues, cheapening the legend rather than illuminating her. The melodramatic vocal surrogacy also extends to Monroe's biographers -- Ben Foster as Norman Mailer, Hope Davis as Gloria Steinem -- and her colleagues, featuring even more incongruous pairings (Jeremy Piven reading from Elia Kazan's A Life). Amid the clamor, Garbus will occasionally include some elucidating or piquant comments by scholars and M.M. friends. But the insights are far outnumbered by the hammy din, the "more and more and more" that Zolotow spoke of here misconstrued as a license for maximalist nonsense.

Melissa Anderson
VOICE Daily Deals

Now Showing

Find capsule reviews, showtimes & tickets for all films in town.

Powered By VOICE Places

Now Trending

Los Angeles Event Tickets

Box Office

  1. Iron Man 3, 72.5 mil, 284.9 mil
  2. The Great Gatsby, 50.1 mil, 50.1 mil
  3. Pain & Gain, 5.0 mil, 41.6 mil
  4. Peeples, 4.6 mil, 4.6 mil
  5. 42, 4.6 mil, 84.7 mil
  6. Oblivion, 4.1 mil, 81.9 mil
  7. The Croods, 3.6 mil, 173.2 mil
  8. Mud, 2.5 mil, 8.6 mil
  9. The Big Wedding, 2.5 mil, 18.3 mil
  10. Oz The Great and Powerful, 1.1 mil, 230.3 mil
Movie Title, Weekly Earnings, Total Earnings

Movie Trailers

©2013 LA Weekly, LP, All rights reserved.
Browse Voice Nation
  • Voice Places Los Angeles

    Voice Places

    Find everything you're looking for in your city

  • Happy Hour App

    Happy Hour App

    Find the best happy hour deals in your city

  • Daily Deals

    Daily Deals

    Get today's exclusive deals at savings of anywhere from 50-90%

  • Best Of

    Best Of...

    Check out the hottest list of places and things to do around your city

Join
Log In