Good movie but grossly overrated

This is a gorgeous movie made by a gorgeous spirit.

Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Following the rocky road and life a times of Playboy model and 'actress' Anna Nicole Smith up to her untimely death of 39.Actress Agnes Bruckner delivers a fine portray of the larger than life troubled Anna Nicole/Vicky Lynn. While not being an Anna look-a-like Bruckner certainly captures Anna's spirit and persona, at times effectively laying down some of heart wrenching scenes. Although this a steppingstone presentation of her life, it covers the main highs and lows but leaves you with a lingering feeling that it's a little rushed. The acting for the most part is impressive especially from Bruckner, Cary Elwes - Marshall's son, Virginia Madsen - Anna's mother and Martin Landau as billionaire J. Howard Marshall. American Psycho (2000) director Mary Harron keeps it interesting and fast paced. The prosthetic make-up effects of Anna's assets and weight gain are particularly notable.The Anna's voice from the grave aspect, her younger self and Marilyn Monroe vision/dream additions scripted by Joe Batteer and John Rice keep the proceedings at times eerily compelling.Its an especially well made for a TV movie and thankfully treats the departed with respect while at the same time being entertaining and highlighting the superficial world of celebrities. As an anti-drug movie look no further and to the producers credit ironically and in contrast to Anna's real life job offers it's certainly not a cheap cash-in.

This movie was way too short. It should have been a mini series to get a little depth. The movie itself clocks in at 1 hour and 25 minutes, which should give you a clue about the shortcuts and too fast storyline in the movie. You'd get a more in depth and fascinating glimpse into Anna Nicole's life by spending the equal amount of time looking up clips on youtube. The actors though did a good job with the weak script. Martin Landau as Howard Marshall is fantastic, and Virginia Madsen as Anna's mother is also very good. Agnes Bruckner does an acceptable job as Anna. Much better than Willa Ford did in the Anna Nicole Smith Story from 2007. The biggest problem i had with both movies were that it shows little consideration about her drug and alcohol problems, and basically just lets us think she did do drugs, pills and alcohol because they were available to her. That is usually not true for an addict. The movie also ends just a couple of minutes after her son dies in her hospital room. Anna lived 6 months after that, and to truly pay respect to the tragedy I think it should have shown more of her life during the last six months that she lived. There were also a lot of characters missing, like her assistant Kimmy and Hugh Hefner. Virginia Madsen said in an interview with Entertainment Tonight there were things they had to leave out to avoid lawsuits. If you want the story of Anna Nicole's life, this is the PG version. The truth was a lot more dramatic and troubling. But if you liked the woman, you probably will enjoy this movie a little bit at least. I think Lifetime should stop making these short biopics and maybe try a miniseries biopic instead. Also there is so much footage and so much information available, that they should even have thought about making a documentary instead. Anyways, it was watchable, but she deserved a lot more time and a lot more layered portrayel of her life. She is one of the most intriguing people that came out of showbiz in the 90's and will be remembered.

TV biopics rarely have the sort of depth that a feature has. I was looking forward to this one because I've always admired and enjoyed Director Mary Harron's work. But not even a really good cast and director could make this film any deeper than its subject matter. In all fairness, there wasn't that much to say without speculating -- which wasn't really the purpose of the film.Fresh on the heels of the amazing HBO documentary called "Love, Marilyn," I was anxious to see how Anna Nicole's story would unfold, given that Marilyn Monroe was such an obvious inspiration for Anna Nicole. Certainly, if anyone in this century embodied sex appeal in some of the same ways as Marilyn, it would be Anna. However, unlike Marilyn - there was really never any attempt apparent that she took acting very seriously as Marilyn did. I'd be interested to know how much Lifetime producers may have interfered with the production of Anna Nicole because that would be a sure indicator of a less than stellar production to follow.I wasn't expecting all that much, given the subject matter - but I was at least expecting a more enlightening rendering of it. It's not bad enough not to see -- but it was nothing that merits seeing again, for sure.

Anna Nicole (2013) ** 1/2 (out of 4)Made-for-TV movie from Lifetime about the life of Anna Nicole Smith (Agnes Bruckner) who we see as a young single mother to her marriage to billionaire J. Howard Marshall (Martin Landau) and of course through her troubled drug use. ANNA NICOLE is nicely directed by Mary Harron and it features some good performances but in the end there are just way too many problems for it to work as well as it needed to. For starters, the film seems pretty rushed trying to fit all of Smith's story into a 90-minute running time as we bounce around quite a bit and the film never really seems to focus on anything. Another problem are a few gimmicks that are used throughout the picture including a really silly one where the young Smith sees a "future" version of herself. At the same time, the older Smith seeing a "younger" version of herself has no impact either. I'd also say that the movie doesn't work with the silly narration, which is coming from the dead Smith looking back over her life. With that said, Bruckner does a nice job in the lead role even though she never really looks or acts like the real person. For the most part I thought she did a good job at showing a troubled person. Landau easily steals the picture as the elderly man who falls in love with the stripper he meets and Cary Elwes is also good as his son. Adam Goldberg does a nice job in the role of Howard K. Stern and Virginia Madsen is good as Smith's mother, although the screenplay really doesn't do many favors for the character. Harron does a nice job at keeping the film moving at a good pace but there's just too many issues with the screenplay for this to be a complete winner. It also doesn't help that Smith isn't all that sympathetic. Still, for a made-for-TV film this here isn't too bad as a quick time killer.