- Network: Lifetime
- Series Premiere Date: May 30, 2015
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Critic Reviews
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Although a little sluggishly paced, this miniseries, based on the eponymously titled book by J. Randy Taraborrelli, makes a decent attempt to show why Monroe, born Norma Jeane Mortenson, was never comfortable in her own skin.... Garner gives a surprisingly confident, spunky performance as the Monroe.
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Garner convincingly captures the ill-fated, love-craving blonde bombshell while Sarandon summons up more than a one-note character and Morgan brings DiMaggio back to prideful, brutish life.
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Kelli Garner manages to bring a freshness to her interpretation of Monroe that never feels like caricature.
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Because Garner is the movie, the movie is worth watching, even if it adds little else to the already active Marilyn Monroe conversation.
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The cuts back to Garner and Noseworthy make sure that every concept is laid out bare, rather than allowing for any shades of subtlety.
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Kelli Garner plays Monroe well enough at certain points in the star’s life, and really well at others, but the performance doesn’t work at critical times because it lacks sufficient nuance.
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It feels painted by the numbers.
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Mostly, it’s a dutiful but nothing-new account of the ultimate anti-feminist icon.
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Garner is game but too mannered as the four-hour dirge connects the dots in rote fashion. [29 May/5 Jun 2015, p.99]
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The teleplay by Stephen Kronish adheres to the standard biopic highlight-reel template, moving in a mostly straight line from early days to final moments, aside from a hackneyed framing device in which Marilyn spills her guts to a handsome, sympathetic psychiatrist.... Most of Marilyn’s film career is left offscreen or referenced in awkward expository dialogue.
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The Secret Life of Marilyn Monroe is a glum retread of Monroe's legend, with a flat script by Stephen Kronish and direction by Laurie Collyer ("Sherrybaby") who gives it all a funereal, depressed tone even when Monroe's career is at its height.
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Both pics [Grace of Monaco and The Secret Life of Marilyn Monroe] are dreadful, badly written, and badly produced.... The Secret Life of Marilyn Monroe is far more watchable, due to a fine turn by Garner and author Taraborrelli's unique approach, which focuses on an aspect of Monroe's life usually ignored: Her complex relationship with her mother, Gladys (Susan Sarandon).