ThiefHott Too much of everything

VividSimon Simply Perfect

Dirtylogy It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

Kayden This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

hall895 If you're looking to see the "true story" of Marilyn Monroe's life you're probably better off skipping this movie. Norma Jean & Marilyn takes great liberties with the facts in trying to spice up the drama. There are plenty of half-truths and flat-out non-truths littered throughout. But if you can get past that you may find that this still manages to be a reasonably worthwhile movie. It's not an accurate biographical account of Marilyn Monroe's life, it's a dramatization. And not a bad dramatization at that.This is a movie with a gimmick in that there are two Marilyn Monroes. Ashley Judd plays the icon in her younger days as unknown Norma Jean. Mira Sorvino takes over when Hollywood transforms Norma Jean into Marilyn Monroe. But we have not heard the last of Norma Jean as Judd continues to pop up now and again as an inner voice so to speak, sometimes to encourage and sometimes to berate and ridicule Sorvino's Marilyn. The point being that young Norma Jean desperately wanted to be a star and refuses to allow Marilyn to screw things up. Suffice to say these constant appearances by her younger self do not help Marilyn's state of mind as her life begins to spiral out of control towards her inevitable sad end. The two lead actresses perform their roles well. Judd is pitch-perfect as the desperate, driven Norma Jean. Sorvino is pretty much stuck doing a Marilyn Monroe impersonation but she makes the best of what she has to work with. As presented here the character may come off as a bit too much of a dumb blonde bimbo to really ring true. Surely, for all the myriad issues she had, the real Monroe was brighter than she's given credit for here. But it's hard to blame Sorvino, she can only portray the character as it was written. All in all it's a fairly gripping, if not entirely truthful, drama. And having two actresses play the famed icon at different points in her life adds a unique twist. This is clearly no work of genius but if you're looking for a reasonably entertaining movie you could do a lot worse.

That_Beatles_Girl Some movies, like "Santa Conquers the Martians" or "Evil Dead", are so hilariously bad that you just have to laugh at them. This is not one of those movies. When I decided to watch this movie I thought, "Oh, cool, a movie about Marilyn. Most of these are pretty poorly done, but I'll watch it anyways just because I'm a fan." Big mistake. This movie is sensationalistic, features gratuitous nudity, and does not accurately portray the life of Marilyn Monroe. Most of the acting in this movie is incredibly crappy, especially from the young actresses who played Marilyn as a child or teenager. Ashley Judd, bless her soul, is just not believable, as a lost soul or as a sex symbol. This movie was so terrible that I turned it off after less than half an hour. The themes of Marilyn being molested are frankly quite disturbing and I don't see why anyone would want to watch this movie. I have nothing good to say about this movie, aside from the fact that it probably saved the studio a bit of money to make, as it is so cheaply and poorly done.

johnstingray01 For fans of MM this movie has many factual errors-not the least of which was how Marilyn's death was portrayed. It has some moments and is enjoyable on a superficial campy level but not as a biography. Both Ashley Judd and Mira Sorvino are good but Judd comes off slightly better as the younger Norman Jean.One part that really bothered me was a fantasy scene, a symbolic "killing off" or "loss of innocence" as Marilyn and a casting agent are thinking up a screen name for her. Marilyn as a child is staring wistfully at Marilyn as an adult sitting in a car. Suddenly the grown up Marilyn shoves the car into reverse and slams into the little girl with a very loud thud on the soundtrack. The car pulls slowly away, its bumper dripping blood. Then you see a shoe on the road in the middle of a large bloodstain. This scene was mean spirited, gratuitous and completely unnecessary.I think the real Marilyn certainly had and created problems but she was basically a tender hearted often lonely soul who deserved to be portrayed better than this.

lefteyez54 i love marilyn monroe and mira sorvino,,,so when i first saw this picture in 2001 i was blown away...Ashley Judd and Sorvino have more talent than i ever imagined. some of the film is a little diced in terms of Monroe's real life and some characters are confused for real life or fiction (was the character named Eddie really involved with Marilyn?) All in all this picture is A-OK in my book