Becoming Cary Grant (2017) User Reviews

A compelling story ruined by over pretentious directing

[ayoreinf · 7/10 · 17 July 2017]

The Cary Grant/Archibald Leach story is a treasure trove almost impossible to fail at. In fact it's such a compelling story that despite the failings of the director one does stay through to the end watching this tale. And personally I don't have a problem with missing bits of the story like other reviewers do or with the somber tone of the story. The somber tone, is an integral part of Cary's life, and as long as the director tells the story I think he does have the right to omit parts that don't fit into the story he wishes to tell.

On the other hand I did find his pretentiousness very annoying. Having such a wonderful source material the director Mark Kidel had to show how he entered Cary Grant's mind and deciphered his innermost secrets. So he keeps on showing us scenes from Grant's therapeutic sessions with LSD pretending he knows what Grant saw there. It's groundless, pretentious and completely unnecessary for the story itself. But it's being repeated over and over again, and I found it to be detrimental to the movie

Cary Grant wants to be Cary Grant!

[jrneptune · 8/10 · 10 June 2017]

Lets get the first thing out of the way. Cary Grant is one of the performers I admire greatly. I have not researched his career in depth but I was aware of his real name. Learning about his troubled childhood and his relationship with his mother and women was enlightening. I was shocked to find out he used LSD, under medical supervision, to better understand himself and was more shocked to find out about his weaknesses. He did turn those weaknesses into a strength though and became a better performer by understanding himself.

Recommended viewing for his fans and amateur shrinks.

On both Cary Grant and Archie Leach

[guisreis · 8/10 · 3 October 2021]

Interesting psychological and existentialist documentary on Hollywood star Cary Grant. There is some about his career, including the very begining as an acrobat in England and singing in Broadway. However, the great enphasis lies on the obscure man beging the glamourous Cary Grant: Archie Leach. Serious family problems, LSD treatment and other experiments and therapies, a bad "serial" husband, dubious sexuality and potential mysoginy... many issues are explored in varied depth in its less than one hour length. With lots of grrat footage, the film also highlights his roles in cinema in which Cary Grant faces somehow Archie Lech, the man behind the mirror.

From my perspective, this was amazing

[hannahnicholsonn · 9/10 · 10 September 2017]

Not every movie is for everybody. If you're a die hard Cary Grant fanatic and wanted it to be just documenting everything he did in life, you're gonna be disappointed. This is merely exploring his pursuit of happiness. It's fascinating hearing about the things that had happened in his past and how they shaped him to become who he was. It's also very meaningful to me to have movies like this. It's a unique perspective and it made me think and feel heavily. Which is something I really love from a movie, and if you do too then you might like it.

I hate not giving it 10 stars, but definitely as far as film making goes it's not award winning. Still great nonetheless.

Very disappointing biography of who was probably America's greatest actor

[vincentlynch-moonoi · 5/10 · 10 June 2017]

I was really looking forward to this. I had read what was probably the best written biography of Grant (by Marc Eliot), but I thought so much could be done with film supplementing the story.

The best addition -- a look at the LSD sessions. Worst deletion -- even the mention that Grant may have been bisexual or gay.

And then there are the MANY films Grant took himself (like home movies). Occasionally they are meaningful to the story, but often you looked at them having no idea who the people were in them, what the buildings, or why they were important. Similarly, there were excerpts from films that implied that they had some deep meanings about Grant's real life. Or then again, maybe they were just words written by a screen play writer.

I'd say buy the book by Marc Eliot. I would guess that a lot of people will be disappointed by this video version of Cary Grant's life.

unbelievable omissions

[kekseksa · 21 August 2018]

I agree with the other reviewer that it is perfectly extraordinary in 2017 that a documentary of Cary Grant should fail not only to discuss in any way his reltionship with Randolph Scott, with whom he lived, more or less as a couple, for more than ten years but does not even once mention Scott's name. While spotting "gay" tendencies in figures of the past can be a very tedious sport, there is not really any serious doubt about Grant's bisexuality and a biography that ignores it, while talking extensively of his difficulty in discovering who he was, is ridiculous. Had the film been made fifty years ago, one would understand, but in 2017 it is almost beyond belief. It is not as if any of it makes one jot of difference to the fact that he was a marvellous actor! or for that matter detracts in any way from his stature as a person. Even though one appreciates that the omission is out of respect for the views of Grant's daughter, who appears in the film, It is still crass dishonesty on the part of the film-maker and rather foolish jealous denial of the past on the part of the descendant.

Knowing little of the man...

[allisonop · 10/10 · 29 June 2019]

Knowing little about Cary Grant - never having read or seen anything personal related to him, I found this documentary insightful and will now likely seek out more about him to fill in any gaps I'm sure we're left out of this short film.

Many holes in story.

[giovannitx · 1/10 · 12 June 2017]

How can you do this "documentary" without discussing the years he lived with Randolph Scott. I heard not one reference to this part of his life. I don't know if they were gay or not, and I don't really care, but I've read they had a very close relationship.

The film is incomplete without it.

Nothing new here

[FearlessOneDay · 3/10 · 13 June 2017]

Disappointing doc. Doesn't really tell us anything new about Cary Grant. The filmmakers had access to his private films, but present no context for us to interpret them. (Mostly shots of pretty actresses. Was he auditioning future lovers?) The footage of his mother is interesting. You can't help but look at her footage for signs of mental illness. He had serious mommy issues, but why didn't he have serious daddy issues, too? (His dad had abandoned the family and started a new family with someone else.) Betsy Drake recommended LSD treatment to him, which gave him great insight into his relationships with women. (i guess old-fashioned "talk therapy" wasn't cool back then?) When his Eureka moment happened, we aren't told WHEN. Before Dyan Cannon? Before his last marriage to Barbara?

I would recommend this documentary to people who don't know nuttin' about him. For people familiar with his films and biography, not so much.

Cary Grant Concealed

[ozjosh03 · 2/10 · 10 September 2017]

The main selling points for this doco are clips from Cary Grant's own home movies and excerpts from his unpublished memoir. But the home movies are are unremarkable at best, dull at worst. And the memoir extracts seem more like Grant's attempts to conceal, rather than reveal himself. The documentary accepts at face value what Grant says about his various marriages, while never even addressing all the indications that Grant was gay - not the plain fact that he shared a house and his life with Randolph Scott for 12 years, nor the revelations in Orry-Kelly's unpublished memoir about Grant's gay relationships in his New York years. At the same time this film attempt to analyse Grant's screen persona through the prism of the actor's private life - incomplete and questionable though the picture they've presented is. It's all highly dubious, and does no justice to either the actor or the man.

Good Documentary

[Michael_Elliott · 31 August 2017]

Becoming Cary Grant (2017)

*** (out of 4)

This here is like many recent documentaries where the subject themselves tells their story. The subject here is the one and only Cary Grant who we hear from interview clips as well as actor speaking from an unreleased autobiography.

If you're familiar with the life of Grant then I seriously doubt that you're going to learn anything new here. We start off hearing about his LSD trips later in life and then we bounce back to his troubled childhood, which includes losing his mother to mental illness and then reaching out to her decades later. We cover his move to Hollywood, his rise to stardom as well as various roles throughout his career.

Other documentaries have covered this stories several times before, which is why I say there's really not too much new stuff here. What new stuff there is includes some home movies that Grant filmed, which are quite interesting and towards the end there's an interview with his last girlfriend as well as his daughter. Truth be told, I would have preferred more to do with these two ladies as I'm sure they had some great stories to share.

As it is, BECOMING CARY GRANT does a nice job for those unfamiliar with the life of the actor but at the same time I wasn't really bowled over by the structure of the film. I think some of the visuals go a bit too far as the story itself is strong enough to hold the viewer's attention. Still, fans of Grant will want to check this out.

Superficial overview of Cary Grants life and career. Features some home movies and quotes from Grants unpublished bio.

[cjbarrett · 2/10 · 16 June 2017]

Disappointing dreck. Lots of half baked theories backed up by little more than embarrassing film clips used in the most ludicrous metaphorical fashion. The musical score wouldn't have made it onto a B-film melodrama. Might have been nice if they identified the people we see on screen. Only Judy Balaban is introduced. Watching pictures of San Simeon probably taken by Grant. Of course they're not identified and were most likely taken a decade before he met Betsy Drake whose segment they feature in. Really useless nonsense.

Sucks

[snelling · 1/10 · 15 June 2017]

If you are not compelled to keep watching, then the biography is a failure. This is a steaming pile of dung. I only stuck with it because it's freaking Cary Grant. They focus on the crappiest aspects of his life. The phony narration was very off-putting. God, what a torture chamber of missteps. Avoid at all costs. The sombre music really brought the story down. What a crappy biography of one of the most iconic actors in movie history. Made me sick to finish this.

Cary Grant boring?

[Opinion02122 · 2/10 · 3 August 2018]

I never thought anything could make Cary Grant boring, but these people certainly managed it! They took one of the all time Hollywood greats and created a snooze fest about him. I've seen many biographies about Cary, and enjoyed them all. I've seen almost all his movies, and thoroughly enjoyed them. So, I certainly thought I'd enjoy this. Nope! I wish I never saw it, because I will always have it in the back of my mind when thinking of Cary Grant. So, if you're a fan, stay away! Go watch a different biography of him. You'll learn just as much, but won't be left with a sour taste in your moth.