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

Critic’s Score: 2.7 / 5.0

2.7

There comes some extent throughout I Was Octomom: The Natalie Suleman Story the place the titular lady 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 throughout the peak of the Octomom craze slightly than making an attempt to dispel among 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 solely taking her criticisms to the chin.

Octomom Controversy Touched on Scorching Button Points

The Octomom craze was out of this world. Many heralded this lady within the Infamy Corridor of Fame in a single day as a result of every part she embodied was the fruits of issues Individuals, particularly, usually critique.

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

It’s no surprise 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 house along with her youngsters, accumulate incapacity checks, and even sniff within the route of presidency funding, she can be instantly thought of a mooch who drains the system and lives off “hard-earning taxpayer {dollars}” to assist her brood of kids.

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

Nonetheless, as most working moms know, if she went to work to assist 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 by way of tv look offers or that godforsaken intercourse work, effectively, throw her within the chair!

The conflicting messages that all the time 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 absolutely 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 alternative 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 turned 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 every part. Nonetheless, 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 possible stroll away from this story feeling as if I don’t know. This lady is solely a flawed human who desperately needed and wanted love and located that in her youngsters however received in over her head.

The movie glosses over the basis of lots 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 determination to have youngsters at such a younger age, ensuing within the first six, would’ve been an effective way of filling in among the gaps and including extra context.

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

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

Her physician was incorrect for permitting her to signal medical documentation whereas nonetheless drugged, and the hospital employees 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 money, however not sufficient to assist herself, and nobody was serving to her with enterprise.

Once more, outlining this feels like I’m bemoaning the movie for making Natalie a perpetual sufferer of circumstance, but it surely’s not a lot that each one of this stuff 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 study her motivations or what formed her and led to her touchdown on this place is so shallow that it’s exhausting 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 means. Natalie had a strained relationship along with her mom. Nonetheless, it didn’t really feel not like any complicated mom/daughter dynamic, particularly once they have been each elevating youngsters at completely different instances and beneath completely different cultures.

Natalie alludes to how her mom’s PTSD and experiences surviving a WWII encampment could 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 means of highlighting that Natalie was a really good, vibrant lady 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 steadiness holding Natalie accountable whereas additionally garnering sympathy for her, and I don’t have any robust emotions in regards to the state of affairs both means.

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 lots of her decisions throughout that particular time-frame to her being hormonal, sleep-deprived, anxious, post-partum, or affected by PTSD.

However additionally they gloss over among the inside workings of how she transferred her loneliness and points onto her youngsters when she had a brood of them, and so they didn’t discover how too many youngsters in a hospital can go away 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 comfortable, wholesome, well-adjusted youngsters with out problem. On the finish of it, we will conclude that she genuinely liked all of her youngsters, and did every part for them.

However we’re additionally balancing that towards 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 lift youngsters, and Natalie went headlong into repeatedly having so many youngsters after which counting on her village to assist 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 supplied, and whereas there was fixed media in all places, Natalie was falling aside and overwhelmed, and so they 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 actual draw right here. And in that case, that’s completely advantageous.

Nonetheless, to discover the human facet 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 received to know or perceive her, good, dangerous, or ugly.

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

Watch I Was Octomom On-line

TV Fanatic is looking for passionate writers to share their voices throughout numerous article sorts. Suppose you could have what it takes to be a TV Fanatic? Click on right here for extra info and subsequent steps.