Rachel Reading

I watched this for the first time earlier this year and since then I’ve watched it about 5 times. If I could give it a million stars I would. Donald Sutherland, Mary Tyler Moore, and Timothy Hutton were all superb, and the movie deserved every award it won. It is the story of a wealthy family rocked by the traumatic, sudden loss of a son and a brother. Conrad, played by Timothy Hutton, struggles to forgive himself over his brother’s loss and to be able to connect with his cold and distant mother, played by Mary Tyler Moore. His father is extremely concerned about Conrad’s health and wellbeing in addition to dealing with his own grief over the loss of his son. This is a tremendously moving movie, and at times it is difficult to watch due to the deeply tragic nature of the story, but I’d highly recommend it!

I think that what people need to remember is that this was a fictionalized account-an imagined account-of Marilyn Monroe’s life and that it is a movie, not a documentary film. All movies have at least some made-up stories. But to me what the film was trying to do was portray Marilyn Monroe as the vulnerable young girl she was-someone in search of love who was abused and exploited by powerful men. As Elvis once said, “An imagine is one thing. A human being is another.” I think that this film generally does a good job of getting to the heart of her fragility, and it reminds us that we as a society have to do better with how we treat each other. We cannot allow any kind of abuse. EVER. There are some who see this movie as having portrayed Marilyn as a victim, but I disagree with that assessment. I think she was a survivor who had a lot of inner strength though her life was cut short. She had a lot more to give than she was able to. Ana de Armas’s performance, in my opinion, is worthy of praise and recognition; she had the voice, the mannerisms, and the Marilyn-ness down to a science. The sex scenes were a bit pornographic and could have been done in a more tasteful manner but overall I think this was a good film.