I watched CALL ME KATE (2023), a documentary I had no idea even existed until this past week. It's on Netflix, so I decided to give it a look after I stumbled upon it.
Right from the start, I notice there's something "off" about the voiceover narration that's supposed to be Katharine Hepburn. It's most definitely
not her, it's a "sound-alike" impersonation that is honestly quite distracting in some areas, especially when it comes right before or right after Hepburn's real voice clipped from interviews and other recordings.
That aside, the documentary was pretty good. It focuses on her life, as all documentaries aim to do. During her liberal-leaning childhood and adolescence, she was embedded with ideals she took into adulthood and she allowed those same beliefs to carry her through life. One of the things I found most informative about this documentary was the aftermath surrounding the suicide of Hepburn's older brother when she was quite young. Her father practically erased him from their lives, barring the very mentioning of his name. "They had to pretend like he was never a part of their family," the narration says. That's honestly quite sad and something I couldn't have dealt with.
Other than that, the documentary was pretty much what one might expect: there's talks on her introduction to Hollywood, her determination in the negotiations, her changing the face of womanhood on screen, her relationships, her decades-long relationship with Spencer Tracy, and her later life resurgence as one of the most famous women in the world. There's also a little tangent about her rumored homosexuality or bisexuality, but it's basically brushed off. The real Hepburn even pops in for a voiceover where she makes a few jokes about people thinking she's a lesbian.
As I say, it's on Netflix, and it might even be streaming elsewhere. It's worth a look, so give it a try.
