Where is the real biography?

wisewebwoman

Nicole Kidman plays Nicole Kidman again as she does in all her films. Not by the wildest stretch of the imagination can one imagine her as Diane Arbus, one of the most talented photographers of the twentieth century.

Here she is portrayed as this waffling waif like pixie, infatuated with a bizarre Svengali-like mentor that she spots from her window one night, and is subsequently alienated from her children and her husband.

Yes, I "get" that it is in some way an allegorical film, and some of the scenes are incredibly painterly and have extraordinary colour washes and cinematography.

But it is hollow to the core, there is no sense of knowing the motivation behind the real Diane Arbus, none of her photographs are shown. There is far too much of Robert Downey however, in his role as her mentor/lover/fantasy.

Diane Arbus could never have been this vapid and cold in real life, surely.

I, for one, was left feeling very cold having watched this murky, fictionalized account of a woman who needs to be portrayed in a far better film than this.

3 out of 10.

score 3/10

wisewebwoman 15 September 2008

Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw1946762/