dannib89 I love Marilyn and this documentary was really great at showing more of her that I haven't seen before and things I really didn't know about her.The one thing that I hated (which is why I gave it an 8/10) is the awful readings by all these actors. They did a horrible job and all overacted and exaggerated all her diary readings. For me that ruined the movie and it would have been awesome with just a unknown backperson reading as Marilyn.The only ones who I thought did a good job was Lindsey Lohan and Elizabeth Banks, and that's because they just acted naturally.But I just found myself getting confused about if it was them talking or them reading as Marilyn.Overall though, I loved the new insight into Marilyns life and the hurtful ending to her life.

Neita Kreuzer I like, many out there, am a huge fan of Marilyn Monroe and was excited to see this movie... and I was not disappointed! I have seen this 3x and will see it again!! I rarely, if ever, have watched anything more than once but this is so well executed that watching this gives me sense of knowing her just a little bit better from the people that were really in her life each time I watch it. I am also, a bit hyper and not very often will sit through a movie/program without getting up and being drawn to do something else. Would highly recommend this to anyone who loves her or, for that matter, anyone interested in finding out more about her!!!

NJeagle Writing a review is not usual for me, but after watching this film I felt compelled to offer an alternative take to what another reviewer has described as "fairly insufferable". That is a personal view, not particularly objective, or even fair, in my opinion. I believe anyone who has seen any to all of Marliyn's movies will appreciate the insights this movie provides into her private life. I found the readings from her journals particularly enlightening. The content of these journals was deeply personal and well articulated, and the dramatic readings by various actors only amplified this fact. I've seen other documentaries about MM, but in my opinion this film does the best job of demonstrating the dichotomy between her movie persona and her personal life. It reveals that behind the sex symbol was a thoughtful, intelligent woman who worked hard for everything she got, and who was plagued throughout her life by psychological demons. It is an evenhanded approach, neither castigating her for her faults, nor deifying her for what she accomplished. Highly recommended for all MM fans.

Frances Farmer I went to this movie knowing very little about Marilyn Monroe, and glad to have the opportunity to learn more about her. Unfortunately, the way the film was put together made it highly disappointing to me.We are told at the start that recently unearthed writings of the actress herself are to be incorporated in the film, and this sounded promising to me. However, the rediscovered writings are actually the biggest problem with this movie. While these notes, journal entries, etc. show Marilyn Monroe at her most honest and unguarded, they are included via dramatic readings by a long list of contemporary actors. The actors are shot superimposed on images of the original writings themselves, pages filled with a rather childish scrawl. The photography of the actors as they read is filled with hyperactive panning, zooming and cutting that quickly becomes highly distracting. Also, the actors' dramatic readings are generally stilted and end up being quite grating because as examples of acting they are very subpar. Unaccountably, the actors often do not read Marilyn's exact words, carelessly omitting or adding a word here or there. You know this because the actor is reading the line while the line is shown enlarged in the background at the same time in Marilyn's handwriting. Sometimes the version read by the actor is actually meaningfully different because of the omission or inclusion of a word or two. I couldn't understand why short phrases couldn't just be read accurately by the actors... or was this their "attempt" to add their own interpretation to historical documents that should have simply been left alone?Toward the end of the movie, I took to closing my eyes whenever an actor came on screen to declaim yet another excerpt from Marilyn Monroe's diaries. Not watching the hyperactive camera work made these frequent interludes more bearable but they were still painful enough.It seems obvious that the film maker decided that having a narrator simply read the excerpts from Marilyn's diaries as a voice over would be too boring or passe. The film maker apparently thought that dramatic readings by well-known actors would jazz up the journal writings and make the film more exciting for viewers. In my case this did not happen and I really hated this pointless approach to the written text.Simply put, the film maker's obsession with making historical material more exciting/lively was a complete turnoff for me. The dramatic readings were frequent, intrusive, uninteresting and often ridiculous. This is what happens when someone tries too hard to be liked.As you have no doubt guessed I do not recommend this movie. If there's another way to learn more about Marilyn Monroe through a movie, then do yourself a favor and go that other way.