Description

Mira Sorvino and Ashley Judd star as two sides of the woman America loved, but who struggled to love herself: Marilyn Monroe. Sensuous, shocking, sensational, this is the secret life and loves of the girl called Norma Jean and the woman who became Marilyn. ... Read more

Reviews (25)

Ashley Judd should be the only actress playing MM
This film is a great showcase for Ashley Judd. The movie itself is okay. It's an HBO movie...what does one expect? Judd does a great job portraying a fictional Marilyn Monroe. Then when Mira Sorvino comes on the screen...BAD BAD BAD... She was so wrong for this part, and didn't have any of the mannerisms of MM at all. She was just annoying!! It was simply disasterous!! On the contrary, I really like Ashley Judd, and I thought that her "Norma Jean" was great. So i say watch the first hour or so, then turn it off, we all know what happens.... For Marilyn fans(like myself), this movie is more of a fictional account than a biography. I much prefer to watch the real Marilyn that fluff like this.

Excellent film!
This movie is a great portrayal of Marilyn Monroe's life. When I watched it on HBO in '96, it made me more interested in her life. I wound up starting a collection of Marilyn's movies. She was bipolar (which has been declared a fact recently), and this movie is interesting as well as fact-based (although no movie is completely factual). I LOVE IT! Mira Sorvino and Ashley Judd absolutely shine! They are awesome actresses!

casting error - horrible casting error
Mira doesn't look anything like Marylin Monroe and it's very important in a film for an actress to look the part. And although Mira Sorvino can generally act in other movies, her performance in this film wasn't very good. Her voice is irritating. I think Ashley Judd's and Mira Sorvino's role should have been reversed. How did the casting directors make such mistake? Mira sorvino just doesn't look like a sex symbol.

Ashley is good, Mira is sucky. This film stinks bigtime!
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If you're a Marilyn Monroe fan, avoid this film like the plague.

If you're an Ashley Judd fan, consider watching this to admire Ashley's undeniable talent.

If you're a Mira Sorvino fan (as if there are any), then god help us all, because poor Mira is the worst Marilyn Monroe impersonator in the history of the world! (Although Mira was GREAT in "Romy and Michelle's High School Reunion".)

Honestly, any number of drag queens could have done a better job of portraying Marilyn Monroe than god-awful Mira Sorvino.

Mira must be a method actress using her own method, because there's just no other possible explanation. Didn't she win an Oscar for something? It sure wasn't for this film.

Mira, if I were you, I'd save up all my Hollywood money and try to buy back all the copies of this film. It's just horrible!

Sorry Marilyn... I'm sure Mira Sorvino didn't mean to destroy your precious memory on purpose.

Interesting concept
I like the idea that Marilyn was such two totally different sides that two different actresses had to play her. Ashley did all right. Mira.. I think struggled. I understand why they chose her: the breathy voice, etc. The film is not bad, but it struggles. ... Read more

Amazon.com

This moody BBC 2003 dramatization of the most notorious debacle in the history of the British Secret Service raises the specter of the treachery of Philby, Burgess, MacLean, and Blunt for a generation of viewers who can only imagine the shockwaves generated by their duplicity.Inevitably the story suffers from the basically repellent quality of its raw material. Determinedly nonjudgmental, it frequently stumbles along a precarious path between romantic eulogy and fact-based fable of the perils of idealism. For all the handsome casting, the characters have little charm to compensate for their deeds. Their motivations are sketched only vaguely. Even in moments of personal vulnerability, however poignant the performances, sympathy is at a premium. But it has its high points as an atmospheric soap opera: the recreation of a period that stretches from the radical aspects of 1930s university life at Cambridge to cold war London, dipping into the Spanish Civil War and the Washington diplomatic circle en route, is vivid. The acting, too, is fine. Tom Hollander's rampantly dissolute Burgess verges constantly on parody. But Toby Stephens (Philby), Samuel West (a frosty Blunt), and Rupert Penry-Jones (an emotionally wrung-out MacLean) work wonders with Peter Moffat's insubstantial script. --Piers Ford ... Read more

Reviews (4)

THOSE BRITISH FOLKS SURE CAN ACT
This BBC-PBS T.V presentation is superb. It is not something that you can look at while darning socks, knitting, washing dishes, talking on the phone or having an evening party-it is NOT light entertainment. Go to commercial TV for that. You've got to sit-down, shut-up and concentrate on what is going on. In fact, it took me two viewings to fully understand what actually was going on. LISTEN closely; the script is fantastic.
All of the actors are superb with Tom Hollander as Guy Burgess a standout. The production is on a par with some of the best BBC productions that I have had the privilege of seeing. With the gorgeous sets and costumes, it creates a feeling of the era that is being portrayed.
If you are into historical presentations and love superb acting buy this DVD.

Ending
The first hour set-up is a bit boring, but it gets much better after that. The bonus features are outstanding and are sufficient alone to purchase this set. Regarding the movie itself, however, I was very disappointing with the ending. Basically, the film ends when Burgess and MacLean defect to Mosocw. Thus, it does not include the remaining 12 years of Philby's spying, nor the eventually unmasking of Blunt. Additionally, Philby's relationship with CIA Chief of Counterintelligence James Jesus Angleton is vastly underrepresented -- particularly as it is germain to at least a portion of Philby's access while he was posted to the British Embassy in the U.S. Lastly, there are several very glaring factual inconsistencies, though the disclaimer at the beginning of the movie acknowledges that the makers took poetic license for "dramatic effect". Frankly, the true story is dramatic enough, and I feel (like a previous reviewer) that this movie was a bit of a lost opportunity to tell the whole story accurately. That said, it still is a decent-enough movie, and worth purchase for the bonus features which contain actual footage of the spies.

Missed Opportunity
The true story of the Cambridge spies is a fascinating chapter in the history of espionage but it is also a study in the English class system. Four upper class idealists who were rather ignorant about the system they were spying for whilst betraying the system that allowed them wealth and opportunity out of reach of the common man.

This dramatization is too detailed on romance and does not focus on the real events enough. The amazing aspect is that they got away with it for so long but there should have been more explananation of the changing world events to illustrate this. The motivation of the four is never clear and the damage they caused is never explained.

If you like English dramas, you will probably like this. But for me far too much time is dedicated to the love affairs of the group and even though you would expect a true story about espionage during world war II and the cold war would be thrilling and exhilarating this is rather dull and boring. Good acting, good direction but a bit too much soft focus.

Fine acting and storytelling
Watching "Cambridge Spies" on BBCAmerica was eye-opening and insightful. By now, most viewers will have heard of Britain's most notorious spy ring. The story of the traitors (I was surprised the BBC hasn't lauded them as heroes) is edited and condensed quite well to fit miniseries time constraints. While in most movies there is at least one character to empathize or sympathize with, there is no character here that one feels inspired to "understand." One finds himself or herself just waiting to find out how and when these folks "got what was coming to them." Overall, the acting was superb, especially that of Toby Stephens. (Sidebar: He's the young Clint Eastwood in "Space Cowboys," if you can believe that. The guy's got a wide acting range.) As a avid viewer of BBCAmerica, I look forward to more terrific series as this one. ... Read more

Amazon.com

When her family moves into a glamorous castle in the Englishcountryside, Cassandra (Romola Garai) imagines great things will happen.But the decaying castle loses its appeal as her novelist father (BillNighy, Love Actually) develops writer's block and her mother diesof cancer. From this sad beginning, I Capture the Castle turns intoan utterly engaging coming-of-age story as 17-year-old Cassandra and herolder sister Rose (Rose Byrne) struggle to win the attentions of their new American landlord (Henry Thomas, E.T. TheExtraterrestrial)--but when everything goes the way Cassandra hopes,her hopes fall apart. Garai's wonderful performance carries the audiencethrough bittersweet discoveries about life and adulthood with hope andyearning. The entire cast---also featuring Tara Fitzgerald (BrassedOff) and Marc Blucas--is superb. I Capture the Castle is anabsolutely lovely movie, delightful and surprisingly wise. --BretFetzer ... Read more

Reviews (23)

Ten stars! What a wonderful surprise
I had never heard of this movie when my husband rented it on DVD - and it is such a marvelous treasure. It's a luminous coming-of-age story about an English child/girl/woman (Ramola Garai) who lives with her father (Bill Nighy), a successful author suffering prolonged writer's block, gorgeous slightly older sister, bohemian arty stepmother (Tara Fitzgerald), and bespectacled young brother. They move to a cold, drafty, leaky, romantic and picturesque castle in the middle of nowhere, fall behind on the rent, wear an odd shade of green that resulted when the arty and lovely stepmom dyed damn near everything one day.
Rose, the older sister, yearns for wealth. The property on which they live is owned by two brothers who come to inspect things - and that's where the real story begins. Narrated through the POV of Cassandra (Garai), the movie turns into an utterly engaging, wise and wonderful coming-of-age tale of hopes, dreams, plots and counterplots, dashed yearnings, and a painful journey toward adulthood. Hilarious and bittersweet at the same time. Absolutely first-rate performances by the entire cast in a film which ends with the realistic but still hopeful line in 'words of one syllable': I love. I have loved. I will love.
I LOVED THIS MOVIE.

Why did they ditch half of the book's humor?
I Capture the Castle is one of my favorite books and I was predisposed to love the film, but it came up short. The movie remains true to the book's plot, but adopted a seriocomic tone that was too heavy on the serious.

The charm of the book lies in the wit of the narrator, Cassandra, even when she writes about her family's poverty, her father's temper, etc. It's all told from a comic slant that contrasts with the subject matter nicely. The movie lost that slant and wallowed in melodrama too often. For instance, the eccentric, selfish, but extremely charming, father becomes simply dysfunctional in the film, stripped of his charisma.

The biggest flaw of the film is that the director, instead of standing in the narrator's 1930-ish shoes, imposes a modern context on the subject, which transformed it into a run-of-the-mill drama, and strips out most of the book's wittiness. The movie even adds a ridiculous touchy-feely reconciliation scene between the father and Cassandra at the end that would have made Dodie Smith puke.

Sigh . . . Maybe someone who's more deft with period pieces will try a lighter hand with this material and get it right in the future.

A More Modern Jane Austen
This was a lot like Emma and Pride and Prejudice rolled into one. It was a bit plodding and too long.

*GLIMPSES OF CASTLE LIFE: NOT THE WINDSORS !!*
Romola Garai plays a winsome Cassandra Mortmain in this adaptation of Dodie Smith's ("100 & One Dalmatians") 1930s story "I CAPTURE THE CASTLE." Cassie is a 17-year-old who wants to be a writer and lives in impoverished naivete in a decaying British castle with gorgeous sister Rose, wise-eyed brother, & the famous author-father who has a decades-old writer's block ~ but lacks Micawber's charm. Topaz, the stepmother, is artistically inclined to frequently 'air' her body on the glorious green hillsides. After the castle's American heir and his brother arrive, the story naturally progresses to 'marrying off' the two sisters.

Teen pulchritude living 'clueless' and tattered in a run-down castle adds up to comic situations and angles. The production is reasonably faithful to Dodie Smith's story. It definitely delivers a light interlude for romance fans in their teens and twenties. The film, rated "R" for some nudity, got scant distribution in the U.S., and that resulted in almost no press. At least watching the DVD will allow viewers to critique some discarded scenes AND even a different ending. ENJOY ~ ~ and more than once......The FIFTH STAR is awarded for Beauty!

different than the book, but still okay
I was prepared to be very disappointed by this movie, as I've loved the book for years. But the film version actually made me think about the serious aspects of the plot - aspects that are under-emphasized in the book due to the narrator's dry British wit. The film focuses almost exclusively on the melodramatic, but it made me realize that the events of the book really are quite serious: the family is nearly starving, the father did serve in prison for pulling a knife on the mother, and Rose's fiance kisses her sister, who then falls in love with him. The film made me think about the deeper story of the Mortmain family, behind Cassandra's humorous narrative. If you've read the book and loved it, don't worry that the film will ruin it for you. ... Read more