While there are moments where Anna Nicole can be captivating, simply because she's so pretty, she lacks the depth and complexity of her role model, Marilyn Monroe. Where Marilyn moves back and forth from Norma Jean to Marilyn more or less at will, Anna Nicole is kind of one-note.
There are a few interesting aspects of her story, notably the former lover and best friend (a much more interesting and harrowing story, and ultimately a better person), but it's mostly just small-town girl makes it big and becomes famous, but she's not very talented and not very smart, so she seems unable.to manage fame and fortune when she gets it. This doc provides no great insights, but I'm not sure there's all that much to provide insight about. A not terribly deep or smart person finds that fame is not all it's cracked up to be, and all the fame in the world can't make her happy. It's sad, absolutely, but pedestrian.
The coyness about her childhood, revealing the distasteful truth in the end instead of including it in the chronological telling of her story, does the film no favors, and I don't see what narrative purpose it serves, except maybe to make us like her and stick with it to the end. Perhaps they realized she just wasn't that interesting or likeable, just another gold-digging pretty girl who yearns for fame but then doesn't know what to do with it when she gets it, and it ultimately destroys her. Or does it? Maybe her lack of substance or smarts might have lead her to perish similarly in obscurity. Who knows. I suppose she felt that to be like Marilyn, she had to have a horrible childhood, but stealing it from her former lover is pretty sleazy, not to mention to damage to her family.
There are a few interesting aspects of her story, notably the former lover and best friend (a much more interesting and harrowing story, and ultimately a better person), but it's mostly just small-town girl makes it big and becomes famous, but she's not very talented and not very smart, so she seems unable.to manage fame and fortune when she gets it. This doc provides no great insights, but I'm not sure there's all that much to provide insight about. A not terribly deep or smart person finds that fame is not all it's cracked up to be, and all the fame in the world can't make her happy. It's sad, absolutely, but pedestrian.
The coyness about her childhood, revealing the distasteful truth in the end instead of including it in the chronological telling of her story, does the film no favors, and I don't see what narrative purpose it serves, except maybe to make us like her and stick with it to the end. Perhaps they realized she just wasn't that interesting or likeable, just another gold-digging pretty girl who yearns for fame but then doesn't know what to do with it when she gets it, and it ultimately destroys her. Or does it? Maybe her lack of substance or smarts might have lead her to perish similarly in obscurity. Who knows. I suppose she felt that to be like Marilyn, she had to have a horrible childhood, but stealing it from her former lover is pretty sleazy, not to mention to damage to her family.