Critic Reviews
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The surprise is, Blonde's retelling of what's already an offensively oft-told tale is absolutely irresistible. [27 May 2001]
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As DiMaggio, Titus Welliver is so perfect we want more of him.
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On the one hand it's just another in a long line of biographical portraits of Hollywood royalty, a genre back in vogue following ABC's successful Judy Garland pic. But this film about the life of Marilyn Monroe can be surprising in the depth of its dark examination into the psyche of its subject.
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It's entertaining at times, but it's not like we haven't seen it before. [11 May 2001, p.59]
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Oates is getting to the party pretty darn late; there aren't a lot of bones left to pick through. But what's left isn't pretty, and in adapting "Blonde" the miniseries, director Joyce Chopra and screenwriter Joyce Eliason focus morbidly, as did Oates, on the pervasive darkness in the life of Norma Jeane Baker. [13 May 2001, p.L8]
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Despite Joyce Eliason's pallid script, the director, Joyce Chopra, gets incisive performances from Eric Bogosian as the photographer who started Marilyn's career and Wallace Shawn as the agent who sent her to dozens of casting couches.
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It doesn't take you close to the heart of a self-destructive icon. It simply skims the surface of the legend, sad and beautiful as she was. [11 May 2001]
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In translating Oates' ambitious and stylized retelling of Monroe's life to television, screenwriter Joyce Eliason and director Joyce Chopra have unfortunately created a fairly dumb "Blonde." [14 May 2001, p.1G]
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The miniseries, airing Sunday and Wednesday, tries to shatter Hollywood glamour by examining how Norma Jean Baker suffered in becoming the icon Monroe. But the heavy-handed approach will send viewers fleeing in droves from this relentlessly dark psychological portrait. [13 May 2001, p.4]
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Depressing, dreary and dull as dishwater-blond hair, "Blonde" - a weird meditation on the life of Marilyn Monroe - confirms that the networks have run out of ideas for programming their big ratings months. [13 May 2001]
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A rambling collection of artlessly tossed-together scenes, this disjointed four-hour hodgepodge wanders aimlessly, becoming more murky and melodramatic with each miserable misstep. [13 May 2001, p.8I]
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The movie reeks of hypocrisy and cheap psychobabble.