Premiered in 2017 at Cannes Film Festival, Becoming Cary Grant is a documentary about the late great actor’s life in mostly his own words. Narrated in his own words spoken by Jonathan Pryce, the documentary spans Cary’s lifetime from birth to death focusing specifically on his inner turmoil and journey to self discovery through LSD therapy.

Archibald Alec Leach was born in Bristol on Jan 1, 1904. He had an older brother that passed away after developing gangrene when their mother accidentally smashed his thumb in the door. This caused little Archie’s mother to become quite depressed and focus too much on coddling the boy to the point of baby dresses and curls. His father was an alcoholic.

When Archie was 11, his mother left the family and never returned. His father remarried and Archie was sent to live with a paternal grandmother. He was left alone, cold, and hungry many times over. This abandonment, as he puts it, began his lifelong distrust in women.

At 14, Archie joined a group of acrobats who performed in various towns and countries. Eventually, they traveled to perform in New York in 1920 where Archie ended up staying. He was cast in various musicals, not for his singing, but mainly for his good looks. Ultimately, he took a vacation to CA where he was signed a week later to Paramount in 1932 and became officially known as Cary Grant and did quite a bit of movies for the studio.

Cary’s breakthrough performance came alongside Katherine Hepburn in 1935’s Sylvia Scarlett. He also went independent and began to choose his own roles. His career took off with classic comedies. Cary was appealing to both men and women which always brought up questions about his sexuality. He was sophisticated, well dressed, and always had excelled manners which made him lovable and popular with everyone.

In Cary’s personal life there was turmoil. He was divorced from his first wife and ended-up in a series of bad relationships. Every woman he was involved with he treated poorly and essentially, unknowingly, punished each and every one because of his poor relationship with his mother. In 1935, Cary’s father died of alcohol liver poisoning and in 1936, Cary discovered his mother was still alive, locked away in a lunatic asylum. Cary’s father had testified in 1915 that his wife was hearing voices/women in her head and had her committed. Cary flew to Bristol and had her released and moved to a home where he would visit her regularly. However, he always preferred to keep his mother at bay. He would often claim that his mother didn’t want to visit him in Hollywood, and she like where she was. But the letters she sent him showed her desire to do just the opposite. Cary liked being Cary and did not want a reminder that he was once Archie, a poor nobody boy with a broken relationship with his mother.

After several years of great movies and bad relationships with women (especially the movies directed by Alfred Hitchcock who sensed Cary’s dark insecure side and cast him in such roles), Cary married his 3rd wife Betsy Drake. Betsy introduced Cary to LSD Therapy spearheaded by Beverly Hills Dr. Mortimer Hartman. Once a week, Cary would go see Dr Hartman where he would drop acid and discuss his feelings to try to get to the root of his deep set issues. Cary also thought of retiring around this time, but Hitchcock offered him the role of a lifetime opposite the beautiful Grace Kelly, To Catch a Thief followed by the ever classic, North by Northwest. These were such roles that Cary couldn’t refuse, and his role in North by Northwest mimicked his own life, always running from the shadows and the unknown–unable to commit.

After weeks of treatment (about 100 acid drops), Cary had a breakthrough and change of heart. He was able to let go of the past and move on from the distrust of women due to the abandonment by his mother. Cary’s mother died in 1973 at 96 years old, and Cary notes there was always lack of emotion and void between them in person.

Wife number 4 brought Cary his only child, Jennifer. And in 1981, he married wife number 5 Barbara Harris, 47 years his junior. Around that time, Cary began to participate in interactive style interviews called “Conversations with Cary”. He would show himself in movie clips, make jokes, answer questions, etc. This he preferred over speeches.

Cary Grant died of a stroke in 1986 at the age of 82. He was cremated and his ashes were spread out over the ocean and his home per his will. Cary also noted that he didn’t want a funeral or a party of any sort, and his wife and daughter honored his wishes.

The documentary is clear time-line of a distressed journey without relief. One would have no idea that Cary felt such inner turmoil and had insecurities regarding women given his demeanor and elegant poise. It is a dark documentary with very little of Cary’s comedies portrayed, and the production focuses quite a bit on his LSD Therapy. There is an interview with Barbara Harris on camera and then a final phone interview with Cary is also aired, which brings the documentary to a close.

However, the documentary is lacking much zest; could there have been more? Perhaps a climax? There was ever-continuing epic music, which did not allow viewers to experience shifts in emotion and the progression of the narrative. Hands down, the highlight of the documentary is, of course, the clips from Cary’s film camera. His own personal collection of home movies filmed by him of his vacations, the women, and his activities are definitely nostalgic pieces of treasured jewels as they show a glimpse into the complicated, dimmed life of Cary Grant.