Blonde (2022) is a bold, fictionalized portrayal of the life of Marilyn Monroe, based on the novel by Joyce Carol Oates. Rather than following a traditional biopic format, the film delves into the emotional and psychological inner world of Norma Jeane Baker—the woman behind the Monroe persona—portrayed by Ana de Armas.
The content of Blonde is often surreal, fragmented, and dreamlike, shifting between moments of vulnerability, fame, trauma, and isolation. It reconstructs key chapters of Monroe’s life—from her troubled childhood and rise to stardom, to her relationships with powerful men and eventual unraveling—through a deeply subjective lens. The film doesn’t claim historical accuracy; instead, it aims to capture the emotional truth of Monroe’s experience as a woman shaped and consumed by the machinery of Hollywood.
A central focus of the film is the construction of gender and beauty through the lens of Monroe’s iconography. Ana de Armas's portrayal is visually striking, transforming completely into the symbol of Marilyn Monroe while also portraying the internal dissonance of Norma Jeane. Her blonde hair, red lips, and perfectly styled vintage wardrobe are not just surface-level costume—they’re essential tools in exploring how femininity is performed, commodified, and ultimately distorted by fame.
The film often juxtaposes Monroe's outward beauty with moments of private anguish, underscoring how her appearance, while universally adored, became a prison. She is depicted as constantly grappling with the expectations placed upon her by men, studios, and the public. Her beauty is both her power and her curse, granting her access to the highest levels of celebrity while also rendering her vulnerable to objectification and exploitation.
Ana de Armas brings a haunting sensitivity to the role, expressing the sadness and confusion beneath Monroe’s glamorous surface. Her portrayal emphasizes how Marilyn—the image—was crafted to be everything society desired in a woman: soft, sensual, smiling, submissive. But Blonde pulls the camera inward, showing us the toll that maintaining that illusion took on the woman beneath.
In Blonde, beauty is not just aesthetic; it’s a tool of control, a currency, and a mask. The film invites viewers to reconsider the icon of Marilyn Monroe not just as a glamorous figure, but as a complex person struggling under the weight of an identity imposed upon her by a world that loved how she looked, but rarely asked who she really was.
