I Was Octomom: The Natalie Suleman Story Blames It on The Hormones In Shallow Dive into Complex Infamy

Critic’s Ranking: 2.7 / 5.0

2.7

There comes some extent throughout I Was Octomom: The Natalie Suleman Story the place the titular girl wholly blames her misunderstandings and mishaps on her hormones.

It’s a constant sample all through the movie, as her story fixates extra on showcasing what it was like for Natalie in the course of the peak of the Octomom craze reasonably than attempting to dispel a number of the worst that derived from that period.

The movie sums up a lot of Natalie’s story with a shrug: “I used to be hormonal.” It’s straightforward to presume that in stating that, one is skirting round accountability, however in the identical breath, it’s as if Natalie is just taking her criticisms to the chin.

Octomom Controversy Touched on Sizzling Button Points

The Octomom craze was out of this world. Many heralded this girl within the Infamy Corridor of Fame in a single day as a result of all the pieces she embodied was the end result of issues Individuals, specifically, usually critique.

She was an exquisite, single daughter of immigrants and a mom of 14. We all know how a lot America likes to hate girls and dictate their selections.

It’s no marvel many criticized her for being simply pro-life sufficient to carry eight new infants into the world when she already had six of her personal alone.

Naturally, as a baby of immigrants, there was the xenophobic part of individuals assuming she was securing her spot within the nation with sufficient anchor infants to kind three basketball groups.

Natalie was in a rock-and-a-hard place. If she continued to remain at dwelling along with her youngsters, acquire incapacity checks, and even sniff within the path of presidency funding, she can be instantly thought-about a mooch who drains the system and lives off “hard-earning taxpayer {dollars}” to help her brood of kids.

Natalie Couldn’t Win in This State of affairs Enjoying Into Each Poor Perceptions of Motherhood

Nevertheless, as most working moms know, if she went to work to help these youngsters, she was negligent and didn’t give them the eye they deserved.

Moreover, if she pursued work within the type of capitalizing off her infamy through tv look offers or that godforsaken intercourse work, properly, throw her within the chair!

The conflicting messages that at all times surrounded Octomom have been fascinating, notably as a result of they showcased how individuals’s values and morals are such a sliding scale and mishmash of issues that they will’t even totally undergo themselves.

Octomom managed to garner the ire of Professional-life and Professional-choice individuals.

The life people satirically casting loss of life threats at her selfishness endangering the lives of kids (sure, I do know, that doesn’t make sense laid out, proper?) whereas the pro-choice individuals couldn’t settle for that her selection concerned bringing so many youngsters into the world whom she couldn’t afford to handle on the time and falling sufferer to the spectacle of media.

Natalie’s Narration of Her Personal Story Does Little to Present Context (Shockingly)

Octomom’s story is actually a kind of polarizing tales that pushes in any respect these teams and stances and challenges the positions, however Lifetime’s model of this story barely scratches the floor of her infamy and why she grew to become a sensation to discover how she felt amid all of that.

Natalie’s narration of her personal movie is a car so as to add extra context to all the pieces. Nevertheless, her choices really feel extra like she’s mildly making her case however with out substantial context.

No matter the place you fell on the spectrum relating to Octomom, you’ll doubtless stroll away from this story feeling as if I don’t know. This girl is just a flawed human who desperately wished and wanted love and located that in her youngsters however bought in over her head.

The movie glosses over the foundation of a lot of her points. I’d even go so far as to say that flashback references to this lonely childhood she had, and even her preliminary resolution to have youngsters at such a younger age, ensuing within the first six, would’ve been a good way of filling in a number of the gaps and including extra context.

As a substitute, we get Natalie, performed extremely properly by Kristen Lee Gutoskie, as this seemingly naive, anxious, perpetually flustered girl who retains unintentionally making questionable choices.

I Was Octomom Outlines Natalie as Sufferer of Circumstance with Little Context on Controversy

Her physician was flawed for permitting her to signal medical documentation whereas nonetheless drugged, and the hospital workers have been vile for promoting her info to tabloids. PR principally protected the hospital’s picture, whereas her leisure lawyer or supervisor felt an excessive amount of warmth and needed to give up.

She was earning profits, however not sufficient to help herself, and nobody was serving to her with enterprise.

Once more, outlining this seems like I’m bemoaning the movie for making Natalie a perpetual sufferer of circumstance, but it surely’s not a lot that every one of these items weren’t true or have been damaging; they’re simply so thinly coated with out nuance.

In truth, after watching the movie, I nonetheless can’t say that I’ve any higher perception into Natalie. The little we find out about her motivations or what formed her and led to her touchdown on this place is so shallow that it’s arduous to carry onto anybody factor and make it stick.

She was a lonely little one, and her childhood was dysfunctional, however we don’t know in what approach. Natalie had a strained relationship along with her mom. Nonetheless, it didn’t really feel in contrast to any complicated mom/daughter dynamic, particularly once they have been each elevating youngsters at totally different occasions and below totally different cultures.

Natalie alludes to how her mom’s PTSD and experiences surviving a WWII encampment might have formed her, but it surely simply hangs there and by no means goes wherever.

I Was Octomom Struggles Balancing Accountablity and Sympathy

Maybe it was only a approach of highlighting that Natalie was a really sensible, vibrant girl with a real curiosity in sociology and psychology, even when she concurrently lacked understanding or the power to handle her personal points relating to nervousness, impulsivity, and different issues.

I Was Octomom, tries to stability holding Natalie accountable whereas additionally garnering sympathy for her, and I don’t have any robust emotions in regards to the scenario both approach.

She acknowledges that she was egocentric and reckless. Nonetheless, she doesn’t remorse her youngsters, has a childhood backstory to justify her sentiments, and sums up so a lot of her selections throughout that particular timeframe to her being hormonal, sleep-deprived, anxious, post-partum, or affected by PTSD.

However additionally they gloss over a number of the inner workings of how she transferred her loneliness and points onto her youngsters when she had a brood of them, they usually didn’t discover how too many youngsters in a hospital can depart many feeling as if their emotional wants aren’t met or end in different identification points.

The main target was extra on how Natalie was an amazing, resilient mom who defied the percentages given her circumstances and efficiently raised pleased, wholesome, well-adjusted youngsters with out situation. On the finish of it, we are able to conclude that she genuinely cherished all of her youngsters, and did all the pieces for them.

However we’re additionally balancing that in opposition to the undue burden she locations on these round her. Frankly, I discovered her mom, Angela, to be essentially the most sympathetic on this piece.

I Was Octomom Barely Touches on Natalie’s Selfishness in Relation To Her Village

It takes a village to boost youngsters, and Natalie went headlong into repeatedly having so many youngsters after which counting on her village to help her.

What sucks about that’s that nobody anticipates being answerable for that many youngsters without delay, particularly once they aren’t yours. Angela’s frustrations have been legitimate, because it appeared like Natalie was so fixated on filling some void that she didn’t take into consideration the impact she had on everybody round her.

Natalie’s mom and greatest buddy have been saints for the help they offered, and whereas there was fixed media all over the place, Natalie was falling aside and overwhelmed, they usually have been battling their very own points.

In some methods, they emerge because the story’s heroes, however solely Angela is handled as such because the movie nears conclusion and Natalie and Angela make peace with each other forward of Angela’s tragic loss of life.

Maybe Lifetime anticipates the docuseries particular that includes Natalie Suleman to fill within the blanks or be the true draw right here. And in that case, that’s completely fantastic.

Nevertheless, to discover the human aspect of Octomom, the movie barely scratches the floor. It leaves her feeling like many empty tropes cobbled collectively with out making us really feel like we truly bought to know or perceive her, good, dangerous, or ugly.

How did you’re feeling in regards to the movie Lifetime Fanatics?

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