Blu-ray Review – Marjorie Morningstar

There's a long tradition of Hollywood melodramas, and there's always been an audience for them. However, 1958's "Marjorie Morningstar" takes considerable patience to sit through, working the subgenre in full with its depictions of shattered dreams, poisoned romances, and troubled families. An adaptation of a Herman Wouk novel, the feature does a reasonable job packing plot into two hours of screentime, but casting is often too odd to ignore, finding Gene Kelly fighting visible awkwardness as the 46-year-old actor tries to make believable magic with 20-year-old Natalie Wood. While the stars have been wonderful before, they fail to summon a proper pitch of melancholy to keep "Marjorie Morningstar" alert and appealingly sudsy. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com