Frida

Released: 2002
Biography, Drama
Director: Julie Taymor
Starring: Salma Hayek, Alfred Molina, Geoffrey Rush, Ed Norton
Running Time: 123 minutes
Rated: R

The breakdown:  The biography of the artist Frida Kahlo and follows her through her crippling injury and tumultous marriage to fellow artist Diego Rivera.

I have to say I didn't watch this movie willingly.  I was actually a prisoner to watching it at someone else's house who loved this artist.

Frida Kahlo was an unattractive Latina artist who had a unibrow, so Salma Hayek had to really hide under a lot of ugly makeup to make her look like this woman.  Frida started out as a normal young girl who liked boys and expected to have a happy life.  One day on a bus as a young woman, she suffers a terrible injury after the bus crashes that changes her life forever.  She no longer lives a care free life, but has a lot of pain daily and has trouble walking and functioning from day to day.

She starts to channel this painful life into painting and finds a fellow painter that she is attracted to (even though, he's equally ugly and a womanizer.)  They marry, but soon after, he's cheating on her, and she knows it.  His career starts to take off and they travel all over the world.  Soon, Frida finds some people who are attractive to her, men and women, and starts having her own affairs.  Her husband is very jealous and angry when he finds out, but then she finds out, he's been sleeping with her sister.
They travel together, they argue, they paint, she gets pregnant, loses the baby and then keeps it in a jar to draw it in her artwork.
Most of the people in the film are severely emotionally messed up and the plot is essentially boring.  If you've never heard of either Rivera or Kahlo, you will most likely not enjoy learning about their lives.  If you're a big fan of either one, I suppose this film will appeal to your sense of knowledge.

1 out of 5 for Ed Norton playing a dashing Rockafeller.