Blonde is both unwittingly pro-life and unbearably sad

MPAA Rating: NC-17
USCCB Rating: Not rated at the time of this review
Reel Rating: 2 out of 5 reels

Blonde is a long and often treacherous, Orphean journey through the sad life of Marilyn Monroe. Part of difficulty with the film is that it is based on Blonde: A Novel, Joyce Carol Oates’s 2000 fictionalized account of Monroe’s life that (the novel’s blurb states) “boldly reimagines the inner, poetic, and spiritual life of Norma Jeane Baker”. So, the lines between fact and fiction are effectively blurred badly from the start.

In addition, breaking common biopic narratives, director Andrew Dominik channels David Lynch and Terrence Malick by creating a plot line that loops backwards and forwards, jumps awkwardly between formats and realities, all to evoke not so much the events of Monroe’s life but her experience of it.

While certainly successful in articulating the trauma of her story, the film does precious little to give her, and the audience, peace. It’s mostly a lot of sound and fury, signifying almost nothing.

Norma Jeane was hated before she was even born. Her mother Gladys (Julianne Nicholson) got pregnant while engaged, and her father was swift to abandon them both. “That is your father,” she tells six-year-old Norma (Lily Fisher in a brilliant performance) gazing up at a picture that might or might not be her dad. “He left because of you.” Gladys gradually descends into madness, even attempting to drown Norma at one point. This sets a precedent that continues for the rest of the film. While certainly mentally unwell, there is no evidence Gladys ever tried to kill her daughter. Rather, it is a visual way of displaying her hatred and Norma’s childhood anxiety. It certainly felt like her mother wanted her dead.

After being sent to an orphanage, Norma makes her way to Hollywood, adopting the stage name Marilyn Monroe (Ana de Armas). Although willing to cast and photograph her, no one takes her seriously as an actress, and nearly every man she encounters uses her for his own sexual gratification. By some miracle, Monroe retains her childhood goodness and optimism, hoping one day to meet her father and earn his love. This legitimate desire soon turns perverse as she seeks this love in the arms of abusive men, calling every husband and lover “daddy.” When Joe DiMaggio beats her, she blames herself. When JFK demands fellatio, she offers no resistance.

One aspect that is especially intriguing, and which the secular press finds predictably revolting, is the film’s treatment of Monroe’s desire to have children. She was pregnant three times and suffered three miscarriages due to endometriosis. In the film’s imagination, two of these pregnancies end in forced abortions. Dominik goes inside Monroe’s womb to show the audience the developing fetus. And Monroe is gleefully excited at the prospect of being a mother and having a chance to give a child the love she never experienced. Unfortunately, this never happens. The abortions, while not portrayed in overly graphic fashion, are brutal and painful. Though no pro-life rhetoric is uttered, the film’s honest and direct depiction of the pain of abortion to the mother and child, has resulted in it being demonized as anti-abortion.

But truth and reality are pro-life and anti-abortion. For this reason alone, the film deserves some credit.

The height of Monroe’s fame came right at the start of the sexual revolution, and she was one its most high-profile victims. The film sits comfortably in the modern #MeToo movement, accurately showing lecherous men who abuse and exploit women for their own lustful and prideful desires. Yet as with this movement, a solution to the crisis is found wanting. Monroe’s most “positive” relationship seems to be the fling she had early in the narrative with two homosexual men, yet that is revealed in the final scenes of the movie to be the most toxic partnership of all. The solution is not in sexual indulgence and certainly not in wanton killing of the unborn. It is found in upholding the inherent dignity of every human person, made in the image and likeness of God.

Everyone searches for “Daddy” and some are fortunate enough to have very good fathers. Yet no mere man can ultimately bring peace. That alone comes from the God-man, Jesus Christ. This hope is almost completely absent from Blonde, and when it does briefly appear at the end, it is ambiguous at best. Since no one in Blonde or real life offered this poor young woman the dignity she deserved, I will end with a prayer. It’s the least we can do.

“May the Lord God, who hears the cry of the poor, grant mercy and rest to His servant Norma. May every sin of hers be forgiven, and may she rest in the Place where the just repose. Receive her three children, who were taken so early in life, into your bosom. May they enjoy the beatific vision together with their Mother, united as a family at last, forever in Your grace.

Have mercy on us as well, that we might create a culture of life, love, and dignity for all people, especially those hurt by the crimes of this age. For you are a help to the helpless, a hope to the hopeless, and the source of all Life.

Through the prayers of the Holy Innocents, Sts. Zelie and Louis Martin, St. Gianna Molla, and St. Maria  Goretti, bless Norma, her children, and all of us. Amen.”

(Editor’s note: This review has been updated for clarity and to provide additional context.)