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Well done, not pleasant to watch
At the start, we see what happened when Natalie Wood drowned, including footage of CBS anchors Charles Osgood and Dan Rather (ironic considering ABC aired this movie). Then comes the first of many comments by real people (a nice touch), followed by a flashback to when Natalie's mother was told by a fortune teller that Natalie would drown. From that point, Natalie's mother was overprotective, though she cared more about her daughter having an acting career than she did about what that career might do to the little girl, and her treatment of Natalie bordered on cruel.
At age 5, little Natasha (as she was known then) was very persistent with a movie director who thought acting was a terrible career for a child. Still, Natalie (as she was soon called) turned out to be quite talented and charming, and she soon became a big star.
As a teenager, Natalie began to wonder what it would be like to be 'normal'. She went through ups and downs not only in her career but in her relationships. She met many people whose names viewers might recognize. And some of those people met with tragedy. Natalie had many reasons to be sad, and over time drugs became a big part of her life. Would she ever find happiness? Would she give up her career and become a mother, as she longed to do?
I thought Justine Waddell did a wonderful job. She especially shined in one scene where Natalie had to convince a director to let her take an adult role, even though she was best known as a child star. Another scene where a terrible event occurred showed Natalie absolutely paralyzed. I also thought Waddell did quite well in a scene where Natalie talked with two girls in a restaurant just as if they were her own.
The little girl who played Natalie at 5 was also quite good. I thought it was a letdown when Natalie became a teenager played by Elizabeth Rice.
Alice Krige made quite an evil mother, though she could come across as tender and almost make one want to forgive her for everything. Sophie Monk captured Marilyn Monroe quite well, at least to me. She seemed cartoonish, but then that's my impression of Monroe.
It was hard to watch all the terrible things that Natalie Wood went through, but she was such a charming person who could give others the appearance of being happy even when she was really miserable. It was a worthwhile effort, and real footage and interviews with real people helped a lot.
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Wonderful film showcasing a great actress' tragic life.
I've always been interested in Natalie Wood, but didn't know much about her except that she was a very glamorous Hollywood star and that she died tragically. This great film showcases Natalie's life, which came across just as tragic as her saddening death.
"The Mystery of Natalie Wood" is a long film and it is at times very hard to watch. As the film is set across her entire life, there is lots of time changes, which are established with a little caption, or a voice over from Lana Wood or someone else who are giving some insight into certain events in the film.
The cast are terrific. Justine Waddell seems like she was born to play the part of Natalie Wood. She does it with so much grace. Michael Weatherly and Matthew Settle are both a pleasure to watch in their respective roles as Robert Wagner and Warren Beatty, each helping to carry the film alongside Justine Waddell. Colin Friels is good as Natalie Wood's long suffering father, while Nathalie Roy didn't get enough screen playing Lana Wood, but when she was on screen, she was fabulous. It is Alice Krige, as Maria Gurdin, Natalie's dominant and overbearing mother, who portrays so well why Natalie's life was so tragic. Alice Krige is in top form here. Grace Fulton is of particular note as the young Natalie Wood also, and watch out for Australian celebrities Sophie Monk and Natalie Bassingwaighte as Marilyn Munroe and Marion Murchall.
This is really one of those films that you have to be in the mood to watch, have the time to watch, and be prepared to learn a lot about one of Hollywood's most iconic women. You may like to bring some tissues also - it's tremendously sad, and not only for Natalie Wood, but for those also who were part of her life.
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The Mystery Still Remains??
As far as I am concerned, Robert Wagner and Natalie Wood were the perfect Hollywood couple, who had their ups and downs like any other marriage. Michael Weatherly (Robert Wagner),"Trigger Happy",'01, did a fantastic job of acting like Bob Wagner and was able to show great emotions when Natalie had her first child and it was not his child, which he wanted it to be. Later on in their second marriage they were able to have a child from their "Second Time Around Marriage". Matthew Settle( Warren Beatty),"The In Crowd",'2000, portrayed a great role when he was asking Natalie to appear in his film "Bonnie & Clyde", in which she declined. Justine Waddell(Natalie Wood),"Anna Karenina",'97 was outstanding in her performance and was radiant in every scene. I never realized what a horrible effect Natalie's mother had in her life and the evil control she had over everything she did. In this TV film, you really have to draw your own conclusions as to what really happened to Natalie Wood and READ BETWEEN THE LINES! in order to come to an honest Ending to this story!
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Good Movie. But what was the mystery?
The actress who played Natalie Wood is a twin. There were parts in the movie where I wasn't sure if they were using footage of the real Natalie Wood. Case in point when she was playing Maria in West Side Story. The camera was showing her singing and I thought it was really Natalie Wood. Not only does she was very good in the part. Many a time they find a actor who looks like the person they are portraying but they can't act. This actress even had her walk down pat. I liked the movie it was no worse then some biops. Her mother was a nutcase. I would of liked to see more of her older sister Olga who I hear is still alive and who she was very close to. The actor who played Warren Beatty was very good, BUT I was not crazy about Michael Weatherly's portrayal of Wagner. I remember Wagner being very cute, thin and boyish even when he was in his 30's. Weatherly looked more like someone from Baywatch. I like Weatherly I watched him since he was on Loving. But not in this role. Also I would love to see what RJ has to say about this movie because he was not seen in a good light IMHO. God I remember when she died. I have been a fan of hers since I saw her in Miracle or 34th St. I felt on screen she really was able to transpire herself from a child actor to a adult very smoothly, like Elizabeth Taylor. Splendor in the Grass and WSS are my two of my favorite movies. I like the way the movie didn't try to smooth out the details of what might of happened the night she died. Try and clean it up. Natalie Wood was a drinker and RJ was a jerk who anyone probably would of tried to get away from. I myself of would of swam to shore in a hale storm to get away for RJ if he truly acted the way the movie showed. I remember hearing about her having a affair with Walken. But why would Walken go on a boating trip with them if it was true and knowing how much a jerk RJ was. And why would RJ have him on his boat. I always thought that was strange, the movie really didn't clear that up. But over all I like the reality footage mixed up with the movie footage. I enjoyed it enough to keep me watching for 3 hours.
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Good, but not great biographical film.
There are several really good things about this TV biopic and a few not-so-good things. On the plus side, director Bogdanovich has given the standard approach a bit of a spin with snippets of interviews from actual people who knew the subject and inserts of photos and clips of the actual star to help move the story along. Also, Waddell (as Natalie Wood) gives a very strong performance in a challenging role. Almost (but not quite) matching her is Weatherly as the love of her life Robert Wagner. Both of these actors have obviously spent a great deal of time studying their subjects and perfecting their body language, mannerisms and voices (particularly Weatherly.) The film also has a generous running time to help keep the story from being rushed and hacked to death in order to squeeze it in to the usual two-hour TV-movie slot. On the negative side, Wood's mother has been presented like something out of a Hans Christian Anderson horror story. Her portrayal is so unrelentingly domineering and menacing that it borders on cartoonish and ridiculous....not balanced much at all. Also, the hair and make-up people have sorely let down Waddell's accomplished performance. Years go by and Waddell has the exact same length of hair and basic style, yet Wood was a chameleon with her hair and the pictures that are continuously flashed on the screen confirm this. Also, Wood ALWAYS, even swimming, had thick black eyeliner on her lower lids. Waddell is never made up this way. The eyes are all wrong throughout the movie. So this detracts somewhat from what could have been a downright eerie resemblance because she manages it several times anyway. More than once, it's hard to believe that it isn't Natalie Wood (and Robert Wagner) on the screen. Several other star impersonations crop up. Some are really pretty good (Marilyn Monroe, Warren Beatty, Sal Mineo, James Dean), others are completely, utterly WRONG (Joan Collins - Attention hair and make-up! - Her engagement picture to Warren Beatty is right in the middle of her autobiography. Look it up!) Enough decent moments occur in the film to warrant seeing it and there's a right-on portrayal of Wood's younger sister Lana (the actress bears a strong resemblance to the real lady.) After all is said and done, though, the audience has only learned a little of what made Wood tick and there's only fabrication about how she died.
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Natalie, we hardly knew you!
I just watched "The Mystery of Natalie Wood" which, all things considered, was much better than I had expected it to be. As a long-time fan of Natalie Wood, I had dreaded something that would do her a great injustice.
Done docu-drama style and directed quite effectively by Peter Bogdanovich, who looks like he's back on form with this, it was shot on locations in New South Wales and in the Fox studios in Sydney, Australia, with a cast chosen, as carefully as possible, I guess, for their resemblances to Natalie and her sister, Lana, Wood; Robert ("R.J.") Wagner; Warren Beatty; and Christopher Walken. The men were the best matched, with the actress playing Natalie occasionally catching her spirit from time to time but looking very much like her only in certain scenes and, often, only from certain angles. (Her face was a bit too narrow, in my opinion.) The actors playing Wagner and Beatty really "nailed" it, with the actor, Matthew Settle, bearing an uncanny resemblance to the young Warren. The actress playing Natalie's scary mother, Alice Krige, was made up and coifed to be quite ghoulish-looking (Great fake Russian accent, by the way!) and gave you the feeling that Natalie's mother was, indeed the true nemesis in her tragically cut-short life. Her father, apparently a browbeaten sort, was very effectively played by Colin Friels. The final sequence was particularly well-done and the recreation of Natalie's drowning, guess work but quite credible, was very effective, I thought. Photos of Natalie from her movies and public appearances, with some clips of her arriving at premieres, etc., were interspersed, not too distractingly, but unfortunately highlighting Justine Waddell's lack of a close resemblance to the lovely Ms. Wood. Music by Richard Marvin and cinematography by John Stokes were of a fairly high order and the production values, for a teleplay, were on the deluxe end of the scale.
Natalie is still sorely missed and her film legacy, which many feel contains some gems that are very much worth preserving, is testimony to how very difficult it is for a beautiful woman with real talent to gain recognition in Hollywood. May she be looking down on today's benighted world from a much happier place than was her lot while she was with us.
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Interesting But Flawed Biopic
'The Mystery Of Natalie Wood' isn't in the same league as some of the more recent big screen biopics - e.g. 'Ray' (Ray Charles bio), 'The Aviator' (Howard Hughes) and 'Walk The Line' (Johnny Cash). I suspect that this is, in part, due to the restraints of a TV budget and also to the portrayal of Natalie. Unlike the aforementioned bios, 'The Mystery Of Natalie Wood' made no attempt to show her 'dark side', ignoring examples of jealousy, pettiness and 'drama queen' behaviour. Instead, she was portrayed in this movie as something of a hapless victim, to whom things happened because of everyone else - nothing was her fault. It would have been interesting to see a much more rounded, realistic, 'warts and all' portrayal of Natalie.
The opposite seems to have been the case with the portrayal of Natalie's husband, Robert 'RJ' Wagner. He was portrayed as a thoroughly dislikable character - boring, self-centred and light-weight. Where was the charm, intelligence and wicked sense of humour (Mike Myers has described him as "Very, very silly...a combination of great old Hollywood stories and...er...potty mouth!") which he was/is known to have? There was nothing about him in the biopic that showed us what Natalie actually saw in him - and she must have seen something, because she married him twice!
I think that the odd biases (for Natalie, against RJ) probably can be accounted for by the script of the biopic being based largely on Suzanne Finstadt's biography of Natalie, in which these biases clearly existed.
Another thing that slightly niggled was sloppy research (again, I suspect the result of relying on Finstadt's bio as source material). In one scene, Natalie and RJ are discussing going to England to make 'Cat On A Hot Tin Roof'. Natalie indicates that she might want to take on other work after completing 'Cat...' and tells RJ "It's alright for you, you have 'Hart to Hart' to work on when we get back!" As 'Cat...' was made in 1976 and work began on the pilot episode of 'Hart to Hart' in 1978/9, then they couldn't have been discussing 'Hart to Hart' before going to England to work on 'Cat...'.
I also thought it was odd that no mention was made (in the latter part of the movie - set in the late 70s/early 80s) of Natalie's insecurity about RJ's working relationship with his 'Hart to Hart' co-star Stefanie Powers. There was one reference to Stefanie (Natalie's mother mentions her in a conversation with RJ) - and that was it. No mention of the rumours (whether true or not) about RJ being involved off-screen with Stefanie - which were doing the rounds at the time. No mention either of the effect of these rumours on Natalie. A glaring omission, I thought.
I also have a 'niggle' concerning Natalie and RJ's yacht, 'Splendour'. In the movie the yacht is shown with wood panelling on the exterior - but in actual photos/footage of 'Splendor', there is no exterior panelling. If they can get something as straightforward as this wrong, what else did they get wrong?
I also felt that the music at the end was ill-judged. We'd just had harrowing scenes of RJ and Maria being told the news of Natalie's death. These were followed by a montage of Natalie photos/clips (a nice and moving touch), accompanied by Natalie singing cheerfully 'Let Me Entertain You' - which clashed horribly with the montage!
Having said all that, I thought Justine Waddall (Natalie), Alice Krige (Maria - Natalie's mother) and Michael Weatherly (RJ Wagner) did well with the material they were given. Alice Krige in particular gave a stunningly chilling performance as the 'stage mother from hell'!
Incidentally, it might have been an idea to have had another actor playing the 'older' (1970s/80s) RJ, rather than just giving Michael Weatherly a dodgy wig and body padding.
To sum up, this is an entertaining biopic, but if you know anything about the 'true' story, be prepared to nit-pick!
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The Mystery of Natalie Wood is a two-part 2004 made-for-TV biographical film directed by Peter Bogdanovich. Partly based on the biographies Natasha: the Biography of Natalie Wood written by Suzanne Finstad and Natalie & R.J. written by Warren G. Harris, the film chronicles the life and career of actress Natalie Wood from her early childhood in the 1943 until her death in 1981.
The film begins on November 28, 1981, on Catalina Island, California, where 43-year-old Natalie Wood (Justine Waddell) falls off her yacht, Splendour, and drowns. Flashing back to 1943, five-year-old, then named Natasha (Grace Fulton), grows up in a violent household in Santa Rosa, California. Her overbearing mother, Maria Gurdin (Alice Krige), is obsessed with making her daughter a film star. When a film is shooting in town, Maria arranges a role for Natasha. She kills a butterfly in order to get Natasha to cry on cue. Her performance impresses the director, Irving Pichel (John Noble), and a year later she reluctantly moves to Hollywood to start her career. Her mother dictates every career move, and gives her a new name: Natalie Wood. In 1946, Natalie is working on three films at a time, and is not allowed to enjoy spare time with her friends. Three years later, teenage Natalie (Elizabeth Rice) is unable to prevent her neglected older sister, Olga (Leanne Simic), from leaving home. While working on the set of The Green Promise, Natalie breaks her wrist. Fearing that her daughter will lose roles if she has it treated, Maria rejects medical help. Natalie's wrist does not heal properly as a result.
While in high school, 15-year-old Natalie falls in love with classmate Jimmy Williams (Jason Smith), and starts to rebel against her mother. Afraid that Natalie will get pregnant, Maria manipulates Natalie into breaking up with Jimmy. Jimmy shoots himself in a suicide attempt. Heartbroken, Natalie severs all ties with her mother. By the mid-1950s, she (Waddell) and her friend Margaret O'Brien (Sophie Mentis) decide that Natalie should play the female lead in Rebel Without a Cause opposite James Dean (Nick Carpenter). In order to get the role, she allows herself to be seduced by director Nicholas Ray (Robert Taylor). Ray does not cast her initially, but her involvement in a car accident caused by Dennis Hopper (Jarrod Dean), changes his mind. Simultaneously, she auditions for director Roy Tremaine (Andy Rodoreda) to please her mother; he rapes her. Fearful for her career, she does not report the crime. She focuses on Rebel, which is a great success. Natalie achieves stardom and becomes romantically involved with many Hollywood men. Worried about her many boyfriends, Maria arranges a date with Robert Wagner (Michael Weatherly), an actor whom Natalie has adored since she was a child.
Shortly before they are married, Natalie promises her mother that she will not have children with Robert, even though she wants to do so. By 1959, she distances herself from Robert and regularly meets with a therapist to discuss her troubled childhood and her frustrated desire for motherhood. Meanwhile, she works on Splendor in the Grass in New York City with Elia Kazan (Christopher Pate). The film requires nudity, and she becomes upset when her malformed wrist is exposed for the first time. Another scene requires her to swim, forcing her to confront a traumatizing fear of drowning instilled in her by her mother. She eventually overcomes her fear and celebrates with her co-star Warren Beatty (Matthew Settle). Wagner becomes jealous of her interaction with other men. While filming West Side Story, Robert announces that he wants a divorce because he never sees Natalie anymore; he is also jealous of her rise to stardom.
The film continues to reflect on her marriage with Robert Wagner, as well as her relationship with Warren Beatty. Natalie's nightmare of drowning comes true, when in 1981 she falls off a boat and drowns in the freezing water.
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Cast
Justine Waddell as Natalie Wood
Elizabeth Rice as Teenage Natalie Wood
Grace Fulton as Young Natalie Wood
Michael Weatherly as Robert Wagner
Matthew Settle as Warren Beatty
Colin Friels as Nick Gurdin
Robert Taylor as Nicholas Ray
Alice Krige as Maria Gurdin
Malcolm Kennard as Christopher Walken
Christopher Pate as Elia Kazan
John Noble as Irving Pichel
Barry Langrishe as Jack L. Warner
Steven Vidler as Richard Gregson
Sophie Monk as Marilyn Monroe
Nathalie Roy as Lana Wood
Jason Smith as Jimmy Williams
Nick Carpenter as James Dean
Lewis Fitz-Gerald as Dr. Thayer
Rupert Reid as Henry Jaglom
Paul Pantano as Sal Mineo
Stephen Anderton as Dennis Davern
Rachael Taylor as Maryann Marinkovich
Nikki Osborne as Jackie Estes
Mark Lee as William Russell
Leanne Simcic as Olga Zacharenko
Andy Rodoreda as Roy Tremaine
Jeremy Cumpston as John Payne
Amanda Crompton as Marilyn Wayne
Jarrod Dean as Dennis Hopper
Sophie Mentis as Margaret O'Brien
David Baldwin as William Goetz
Patrick McGrath as Edmund Gwenn
Brett Sheerin as Charlie
Paul Barry as Robert Vaughn
Rachel Scobie as Joan Collins
Phillip Lye as Joseph L. Mankiewicz
Inga Romantsova as Gypsy Lady
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