in order to enjoy fur an imaginary portrait of diane arbus and stephen shainberg need the viewer to suspend all reality and prior knowledge of the american photographer and diane arbus . paradoxically and it the very use of diane arbus name and knowledge to her life and work and that set this film up to fail on a grand scale . what become apparent quite early on with the casting of the beautiful waspish and glamorous nicole kidman a the anti glamorous jewish diane arbus and be that shainberg do not get arbus or what her work be about ( unsentimental realism ) and seem only attract to arbus on a superficial level through her photograph of circus freak . what follow be a kind of pretty and trivial beauty and the beast fantasy biopic with robert downey jr a kidman hairy fictional love interest . however and it not the banality of the story that be the main flaw in this film and but the director misogynistic stance that diane arbus and one of the art world most singular and original woman photographer and be incapable of form her own idea about her work . while his previous film secretary be a study of female masochism and his continued portrayal of the female a submissive spoil this film completely and fly in the face of the real life diane arbus courage and tenacity and fearlessness in single handedly explore the often shady world of outsider . imagine an imaginary biopic on pop star madonna life with guy richie a her svengali and the man behind her career and and you will get a feel of how seriously flaw and imaginary this film be represent it can only work if you have absolutely no knowledge of the subject and or just choose to ignore all the fact . it a shame because once you remove all reference to diane arbus and this film could have stand up on it own a an interesting study on fetishism and a good companion piece to secretary . 4/10 .