I remember the first time I laid eyes on Anna Nicole Smith. It was a Guess ad in the early 90s and I thought she was stunning. Not your usual waif thin model and extremely blond and made up, there was still just something about her. She kind of slipped off my radar until she married J. Howard Marshall and again until her painful-to-watch reality show in 2002, and finally her death. It seemed that the media was full of all the details of Anna’s life and its sad ending. I thought I watched some quickly put together movie about her back then.
Now, Lifetime is releasing a biopic on Anna Nicole, aptly named Anna Nicole. This movie, however, starts when Anna was just Vickie Lynn Hogan, a small child, and chronicles her rise to fame, or infamy. Naturally, the more interesting aspects of Anna Nicole come in her later years, so the movie does not spend too much time in her childhood days. With a running time of about an hour and a half, there is not much time to get her entire story in, but I thought the movie did quite well in its attempt.
Anna Nicole stars Agnes Bruckner as Anna. At first glance, my initial reaction was “that is no Anna.” As the movie continued on, though I was won over. Reali ing that it would be extremely difficult to have someone transform into a person who had so many different facets to her personality, and some of them showing at the same time, I reali ed Ms. Bruckner actually did a fabulous job. Anna Nicole also brings some well known names to its cast including Martin Landau as J. Howard Marshall, Virginia Madsen as Anna’s mother, Virgie, Cary Elwes as E. Pierce Marshall, and Adam Goldberg in a remarkable dead on Howard K. Stern. Honeslty, I had forgotten about Howard K. Stern’s bi are role in Anna’s life and almost squealed in glee when Adam Goldberg appeared in a scene.
I am not sure why Lifetime decided to release a movie about Anna Nicole at this particular time. It has been about six years since she died and there has been no news surrounding that never ending lawsuit (resolved finally in 2011) or her daughter, Dannielynn, whom Larry Birkhead has mostly kept out of the spotlight. Along with the timing, I am not quite sure of the purpose of the film. Anna Nicole did not reveal any new information that, at least, I had not heard of regarding her life. I think this is the biggest flaw with the movie, it seemed to serve no purpose.
Setting that aside, Anna Nicole was a fun view, especially for someone who was once a fan and followed her for a bit. It was almost like having her back again. Of course, that came with the price of reliving the sad ending to it all. All of the actors brought their characters to life and were actually enveloped a bit into them. I recogni ed them, but did not automatically think of them as I watched.
If you were ever a Anna Nicole fan, or just like to see what she was up to, you should tune into Anna Nicole debuting at 8 pm ET on June 29, 2013. Then come back here and tell me what you thought. Did you learn anything new? Was it worth watching? I would love to hear your thoughts!
Anna Nicole (Lifetime): Was It Worth It? [Review]
No comments:
Post a Comment