Review of “Blonde”: Success shatters the character of Humpty Dumpty

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Blonde, a historical psychological drama that presents a fictitious account of American pop culture icon Marilyn Monroe‘s life and is the first movie of the 2020s to be certified NC-17, is based on Joyce Carol Oates’ 2000 novel of the same name.
Blonde, the first full-length movie from writer-director Andrew Dominik in ten years (Killing Them Softly, The Assassination of Jesse James By the Coward Robert Ford), follows the life of Norma Jeane Mortenson (Ana de Armas), from her early years as a young girl in 1933 to her drug-related death in 1962.
In the beginning of the movie, Gladys Pearl Baker (Julianne Nicholson), Norma’s alcoholic and mentally unstable mother, tells her daughter that her father was a well-known actor on a daily basis.
The only memory Norma has of the parent she never met is a black and white photograph tacked to the wall that she is forbidden by her mother from mentioning. Norma’s ambition for achievement is fueled by her fatherlessness since, despite obtaining an almost unparalleled degree of recognition, she continuously feels as though something is missing from her incredibly broken life.

In the movie, Norma leads a life that is akin to “Humpty Dumpty.”

She was emotionally broken at an early age and then put through tremendous hell, so she never really has the chance to be whole during the course of the Blonde. The way Norma distances herself from Marilyn and insists that they are two different persons emphasizes this point in particular. According to the way Marilyn is depicted, she engages in sex by appealing to both the animalistic sexual impulses of her primarily male audience and her outward physical beauty. On the other hand, Norma realises that she needs Marilyn’s reputation as a sex symbol in order to make ends meet. She wants to live a regular life with a loving spouse and kids.
With how mentally painful Norma’s life turns out to be, Blonde strains the limits of the drama subgenre, at moments almost transforming into a horror movie.
While vocally protesting that she wants to keep her unborn child, Norma is manhandled during auditions, coerced into sexual situations, and tortured during abortions. As a result, Norma ends up detesting the version of herself she sees on screen. Her premieres leave her feeling like nothing more than a piece of meat surrounded by horny dogs who are foaming at the mouth.
One of the film’s most terrifying scenes is when she had her second abortion after being awkwardly coerced into having sexual relations with JFK. Norma eventually turns to drugs and alcohol, deteriorating into even more erratic behaviour and finding herself doing absolutely irreparable harm to her own reputation as a result of being torn between her two identities and the realisation that her make-believe persona is much more popular than her compassion-deficient real self.
The fact that every woman who encounters her guests gushes about how any woman would kill to be in her limelight makes this even more sad for Norma. Every moment of bliss she pursues ultimately turns into complete and total agony as she bounces from a trio to an abusive marriage to a loving one that she finally destroys with her persistent drug and alcohol addiction.
Blonde’s frequent, unforeseen switching back and forth between being displayed in colour or black and white only serves to emphasise the stark difference between her real existence and her fantasies.
Blonde’s most intriguing aspect may be that de Armas instead gives audiences a convincingly distressed portrayal of Norma Jeane, despite the fact that many viewers might go into the movie expecting a biopic about one of America’s most well-known celebrities that is centred on her life and filled with hardship.

Love and approval desired

She is shown as someone who wants nothing more than the love and approval of everyone, including her lovers, her mother, and even her missing father, only to watch as it is yanked away from her anytime it is in her possession. One may contend that Blonde’s NC-17 rating wasn’t totally deserved. The film’s sexual interactions, both joyful and bad, are more trippier than they are gory, despite include representations of rape, painful moments regarding her abortions, and several topless glimpses of de Armas.
The film’s tense atmosphere is further expertly heightened by Chayse Irvin’s gorgeously unsettling photography, Adam Robinson’s flawless editing, and Nick Cave and Warren Ellis’ magnificently eerie score. Despite being an adult picture, Blonde shouldn’t be dismissed as sex-obsessed dreck. De Armas portrays Norma Jane’s astonishing descent into perpetual disappointment, regret, grief, and insanity throughout the course of the narrative in a gorgeous and confused mess of a performance that is both painful and hypnotic.
Blonde is a must-see for anybody looking for a movie that is both incredibly harsh and brilliantly executed.

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