This is as amateurish a production as I've ever seen; it strains credulity that Peter Bogdanovich ('What's Up, Doc?', 'Nickelodeon', and the exquisite 'Paper Moon') directed it.
Someone made the decision that clips of the real Natalie Wood were to set the scene for the newly filmed screenplay. The result is that any willing suspension of disbelief goes right out the window- one spends an entire viewing noticing how little the actors resemble their real-life counterparts, instead of being drawn into their performances.
That might have been excusable if the acting was top-notch, but it isn't. While Justine Waddell acquits herself decently well as Natalie Wood, the male performers aren't up to her level. I won't name names, but one male actor who has to do a lot of crying turns in a performance that would disgrace an old episode of 'The Lucy Show'- stock sobbing with hands over the face, to conceal the inept histrionics.
If you want to enjoy a movie that tells you all about Natalie Wood, watch 'Gypsy', not this. 'Gypsy' is as much the story of Wood's life as it is Gypsy Rose Lee's, and it's much better acted than this thing, even with steamroller Roz Russell in it.
If you want to enjoy something by Peter Bogdanovich, try anything else, even 'At Long Last Love'. In 1975, we thought that was a pretty bad movie. We didn't have a clue what bad was.
Someone made the decision that clips of the real Natalie Wood were to set the scene for the newly filmed screenplay. The result is that any willing suspension of disbelief goes right out the window- one spends an entire viewing noticing how little the actors resemble their real-life counterparts, instead of being drawn into their performances.
That might have been excusable if the acting was top-notch, but it isn't. While Justine Waddell acquits herself decently well as Natalie Wood, the male performers aren't up to her level. I won't name names, but one male actor who has to do a lot of crying turns in a performance that would disgrace an old episode of 'The Lucy Show'- stock sobbing with hands over the face, to conceal the inept histrionics.
If you want to enjoy a movie that tells you all about Natalie Wood, watch 'Gypsy', not this. 'Gypsy' is as much the story of Wood's life as it is Gypsy Rose Lee's, and it's much better acted than this thing, even with steamroller Roz Russell in it.
If you want to enjoy something by Peter Bogdanovich, try anything else, even 'At Long Last Love'. In 1975, we thought that was a pretty bad movie. We didn't have a clue what bad was.