Michael Nordine author “There is no meaning to life apart from the movie story,” writes Joyce Carol Oates in the opening pages of “Blonde,” “and there is no movie story apart from the darkened movie theater.” If it was inevitable that Oates’ novel about Marilyn Monroe would be made into a movie, it’s also a little ironic that that movie was made by Netflix — suffice to say that few who see “Blonde” will do so in a darkened movie theater. How many potential viewers are scared off by its runtime of 167 minutes is impossible to say, but there is a good reason for its protracted length: The book is similarly imposing at 738 pages. A finalist for both the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award, Blonde was released in 2000 and adapted once before — not that the CBS miniseries starring Poppy Montgomery garnered nearly as much attention as this new version has.
