Movie Review: Love, Marilyn, Collage of Monroe Material, by Liz Garbus

HBO Documentary Films

Marilyn Monroe is the subject of the documentary "Love, Marilyn," from Liz Garbus.

Based on recently discovered diaries and letters, Love, Marilyn is mostly the voice of Marilyn Monroe spoken by a range of actors and contemporaneous observers in a collage by the director, Liz Garbus. But this slick documentary is also a respectful love letter to Monroe, presented here as a sexpot, feminist and Tennessee Williams heroine come to life, noble in her respect and need for a sensitive, considerate humanity.

Some of the actors speaking Monroes words (with talent like Glenn Close and Viola Davis, no one is going for impersonation) do subtle, thoughtful work, linking many of Monroes worries to those that all actors face. (Uma Thurman, you nailed it.)

Others get a bit cringe-worthy. (Ben Foster works way too hard in his effort to be cool with the language of Norman Mailer.) The star appearances alternate with material of Monroe ! herself, performing or giving interviews. Love, Marilyn is inventive but sometimes pretentious, a proud party of Monroe mania that were all but ordered to admire.

Does it convince you that Monroe deserves worship? That wont be settled in a brief review. But the intelligence and dynamism of Ms. Garbuss approach could hardly fail to make you appreciate Monroes growth as an actor. (Clips of The Prince and the Showgirl prove that, as well as her communications with Lee Strasberg, her acting coach and mentor.) More so, youll have sympathy for the hard-working woman whose self-improvement lists included exhortations of things she must do and never should do.