Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story Review | VIFF 2017

<p>There should be no doubt in anyone&&num;8217&semi;s mind that Hedy Lamarr was one of the most beautiful actresses to grace the screen&period; Her presence was demanding and hypnotic&period; Her performances were legendary&period; But above all to her&comma; she didn&&num;8217&semi;t care about any of that&period; The acting&comma; beauty&comma; and glamour could disappear in an instant&comma; she wouldn&&num;8217&semi;t mind&period; She didn&&num;8217&semi;t care if she was seen as a Bombshell&period; What she really wanted to do was create&period; And that she did&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;130843" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-130843" style&equals;"width&colon; 928px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"size-full wp-image-130843" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;10&sol;24000546&sol;Bombshell-1&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Bombshell &lowbar; 1" width&equals;"928" height&equals;"523" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-130843" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;Bombshell&colon; The Hedy Lamarr Story&comma; Reframed Pictures&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>Writer&sol;Director Alexandra Dean&&num;8217&semi;s <em>Bombshell&colon; The Hedy Lamarr Story <&sol;em>is an inspirational tale mixed with a rags to riches to rags story&period; There&&num;8217&semi;s nothing here that makes the documentary stand out technically&period; Talking head interviews with Diane Kruger&comma; Robert Osborne &lpar;in his final on-screen appearance&rpar;&comma; and Lamarr&&num;8217&semi;s remaining family all attempt to tell the tale of her life&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The documentary feels like a scramble to find more of a story than the one they have&period; A lot of interesting portions of her life are glossed over to get back to the point that she wanted to be a great inventor&period; I enjoy the need for narrative focus&comma; but it closes us off from other equally interesting parts of Hedy&&num;8217&semi;s life&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>While the doc may streamline itself&comma; the emotion of the story is still present and hits where it needs to&comma; when it needs to&period; There&&num;8217&semi;s a moment where Dean puts a photo of Lamarr in her later years after her final round of plastic surgery&period; She was an innovator in many ways&comma; including cosmetic surgery&comma; but the picture feels like it&&num;8217&semi;s on the screen to show how far she had come&period;  There&&num;8217&semi;s a horror to seeing what she had done to her looks&comma; but more importantly&comma; we see her devastating deterioration both inside and out&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;130844" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-130844" style&equals;"width&colon; 800px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"size-full wp-image-130844" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;10&sol;24000701&sol;Bombshell-2&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Bombshell &lowbar; 2" width&equals;"800" height&equals;"450" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-130844" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;Bombshell&colon; The Hedy Lamarr Story&comma; Reframe Pictures&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p><em>Bombshell&colon; The Hedy Lamarr Story <&sol;em>may not be the most innovative documentary&comma; but it more than does justice to the woman who deserved to be seen for more than just her looks&period; Hedy Lamarr was an acting icon and an under-seen inventor&period; Lamarr innovated in many ways during her life&period; It may not pay tribute in the groundbreaking way she may have&comma; but it sure as hell succeeds at painting a life worth remembering&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;