Marilyn Monroe's letters (diary, memoirs, whatever you want to call them) are "performed" by various actors/actresses to us, documenting her feelings (also shown in background as a visual device to add a degree of dramatics to the actors studio performances of those who look at us and try to live the feelings of those they depict) at the time she lived. From her beginnings as an actress to her "medicinal suicide", details about Marilyn's rise to an icon, her turbulent relations with 20th Century Fox, the general consensus that she was a ditz (or a really talented actress deserved of respect) flashing her marvelous figure which was responsible for capturing the lust of men (and disgust/jealousy of women) everywhere, the emotional/psychological problems always troubling her, complicated marriages and relationships to men, gaining notoriety and popularity through her intense sexuality, becoming a media celebrity of substantial popularity, and the mental downturn that left her an actress deemed unfit to hire, "Love, Marilyn" covers a lot of ground.While I found all the actors and actresses (this approach felt a bit too pretentious for my tastes) a bit annoying, the material was fascinating (particularly when documents from directors such as Billy Wilder and George Cukor are read, Arthur Miller's interviewed from the past, Amy Greene's candidly shared details (because she knew, lived, and had intimate conversations with her)) because it shed light on how Marilyn was viewed by those that worked with her and provided insight into that enigma so emblazoned in stunning photographic beauty. I have considered myself a fan of "The Misfits" (1961) for years, but after watching this, knowing Miller wrote it, this documentary left me rather unsettled that a husband who claimed he loved his wife would populate the script with blatant disregard for her "image" and talent. I have always felt that the need to stigmatize Marilyn as all style and no substance couldn't be further from the truth…there's real truth in "Bus Stop", if one is willing to see past just the allure and beauty. My personal favorite Marilyn Monroe film is "Niagra", mentioned a few times in the film (just throwing it out there)What happened during her final film project (ironically titled "Something's Got To Give"), the pugnacious contempt from Laurence Olivier (during "The Prince and the Showgirl"), Billy Wilder and George Cukor's teeming anger at her misbehavior on set (it would be called Monroe acting a diva in the obsessive celebreality of today's pop culture), John Huston's misappropriation of studio funds (gambling them away) and how it allowed them to blame it on her (because her reputation had become so tarnished) regarding the budget on "The Misfits", Miller using Marilyn to escape the scrutiny of possible Communist ties during the McCarthy era, and the Playboy nude pictorial are all featured subjects in this documentary. I would prefer the typical narrative device/approach, with emphasis on the resources that dissect and explore this fascinating personality, this woman, this actress, this sexual icon, but "Love, Marilyn" gives actors/actresses a chance to interpret in performance how certain people felt through her and perhaps how she felt in those words on paper. What I found most fascinating was how Joe DiMaggio reacted to the hoopla behind the "blowing dress" that provided an essential lasting prominence to Marilyn's legacy and Marilyn's relationship to Lee Strasberg and his wife Paula (Paula would be her coach on set during filming to give her insight and be an inspiration). Particularly funny to me was how Jack Lemmon, in an interview about her during "Some Like it Hot", spoke of her Strasbergian method behavior during filming, as a rather loopy bit of unnecessary time wasted. "Love, Marilyn" should be of interest to Marilyn's cult and fanbase.

This was a very good documentary. I learned a lot about MM and liked seeing old interviews with her and her friends and peers. The story, structure, music and editing were great and it was never dull. My only complaint is that I cringed many times, watching most of the actors read from Marilyn and others' letters and books. I felt that they emoted waaaaaay too much and were showing off. It felt like they agreed to recite the words or "act" for selfish reasons. It was over the top: especially Marisa Tormei, Uma Thurman and Adrian Brody. It called to much attention to the actors and was very distracting. It took me OUT of the film. The film was about MM not these actors. At the very least, the should have been offscreen, only supplying a voice over. I suppose the director's argument would be that they were trying to convey the emotions of the subjects who had written the books, poetry, etc, but it was embarrassing and self serving. I will not see the film again for this single reason. This is a documentary. I don't want to see Hollywood actors overacting.

Rarely is the public ever allowed to see the private journals written by major movie stars or public figures who die tragically. In this film - Marilyn Monroe is exposed in ways that reveal who she truly was. A woman trying to figure out who she was, using acting as therapy. Having been abandoned as a child, she spent her life trying to receive the love and approval that she never got from her birth parents.One of the most stunning things about Marilyn is that she was poetic and far more articulate than anyone ever gave her credit for. Hearing her own words against the backdrop of the times shows her fragility in ways that have never been seen before. Told through archival and film clips, interviews with people she knew and film historians, actors provide dramatic readings of the materials written by both the actress and observers at that time. Some startling revelations also exonerate and vindicate her to a great degree. For instance, the many stories about her being late to the set and unable to perform can be explained by the fact that her acting process was different. As Actor's Studio coach Lee Strasberg said - she was one of the most sensitive and talented of any actor he ever worked with. That would explain, then, why Billy Wilder had such a time trying to give her explicitly technical direction. Not to mention, Laurence Olivier thoroughly insulted her as she out-performed him on camera.She was also dismayed by the fact that she was presented as so stupid that she wouldn't be able to tell that Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis were actually men in drag and not women. That whole comic story line was dependent upon her character's stupidity. Only the joke was on her. Her first marriage to Joe DiMaggio was fraught with turmoil due to the demands of her career. They divorced, but when she was lied to and locked away in a sanitarium without her knowledge and consent - it was DiMaggio who came to her rescue. Alarmed at how she had fallen in with people he felt exploited her, he asked her to remarry him on August 1, 1961, but she was found dead August 5. In fact, he loved her so much that he had red roses delivered three times each week to her grave site for two decades. An acquaintance of Marilyn said that it was during her time with Arthur Miller that she began using barbiturates to sleep. It isn't any wonder, given that Miller told the press that they were to marry before he even asked her. It was clear that he used her. First, to get out of his House Un-American Activities Commission debacle, then to get material, writing unflattering and malicious things about her in his journals. Then he rubbed salt in the wound by putting these details in The Misfits, forcing her to make fun of herself in cruel ways. Miller also wound up schtupping a photographer he met on the set - apparently right under Marilyn's nose. No wonder it was her last film. Drugs are a funny thing. If you're fragile, you get hooked - for a lifetime.But once Marilyn was rid of Miller, she was really looking to working with Lee Strasberg in her production company to create the kinds of projects that inspired her. That, and the fact that DiMaggio's son had spoken to her the night she died, saying she seemed just fine makes it apparent that she did not commit suicide. She was on a number of medications at the time so it was probably accidental. Her legendary romps with the Kennedy boys are the stuff of sordid tabloids, but it wasn't talked about until decades later. Marilyn was known to have a journal documenting her affairs and conversations. Before she died, rumors were circulating that she planned a press conference that following Monday. If that is the case, it would seem that the Kennedy boys, who had used and cast her aside would stand a lot to lose. Especially since Bobby Kennedy is said to have been at the scene before the coroner when Marilyn's body was found. Most likely, to destroy her latest journal. Who told him about it? Seems like maybe he already knew.And what better way to debase and invalidate someone than to insinuate that they were so unhappy that they killed themselves? It would certainly feed the male egos of the men who rejected her. But she got the last laugh, because her candle has been lit for half a century. Wherever she is, she must be smiling - especially now that her true voice has finally been heard -- for the first time ever.

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.