Destined to be one of the most controversial films of the year, the Marilyn Monroe biopic Blonde finally lands on Netflix Wednesday after more than a decade of troubled production.

While the visceral lead of Ana de Armas has received almost universal praise, critics are divided on whether the uncompromising, nearly three-hour film is an artistic tour de force or another gruesome exploitation of the 20th-century icon.

For ID Magazine, Blonde is “a guttural, instinctive, angsty filmmaking that bends space, time and every cinematic tool at its disposal to seek emotional truth.”

Or viewers could take the position of New Yorker Richard Brody, who called it “ridiculously vulgar” and saw the endless torment Monroe experiences on screen as “a peculiar kind of directorial sadism.”

Australian director Andrew Dominik certainly does not skimp on his adaptation of Joyce Carol Oates’ semi-fictional hit book of the same name.

From the trauma of a mentally unstable and abusive mother, to her rape by a studio boss, to a particularly sordid scene with President John F. Kennedy, Monroe’s life is portrayed as one of relentless abuse and torment.

Dominik has spent 11 years making the film and has credited the #MeToo movement against sexual assault with finally sparking interest in the story — though he reportedly battled long and hard with Netflix over long run times and graphic scenes .

Armas told reporters at the Venice Film Festival, where the film premiered this month, that the role had her going into “awkward, dark and vulnerable” places.

“She was all I thought about, all I dreamed about, all I could talk about. She was with me and it was beautiful,” she said.

The crew filmed at the real locations where Monroe was born and died, with Dominik saying the shoot “took on elements of a seance.”

This is a moment of glory for Armas, who has worked with a vocal coach for months to overcome her Cuban accent and find a voice that can express both Monroe’s character and her own unique intonation.

“On the first day of shooting, I went home with this feeling of awe that I had the privilege of actually working with Marilyn Monroe,” said co-star Adrien Brody, who plays husband Arthur Miller, in Venice.

Dominik’s films have often proved divisive.

Many saw his previous biopic, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, starring Brad Pitt, who is producing Blonde, as a poetic masterpiece, but just as many found it boring and pretentious, and it flopped at the box office.

But that shouldn’t bother Dominik.

Blonde is “a challenging film,” he told Screen Daily. “If the audience doesn’t like it, that’s the damn audience’s problem. It is not running for public office.”

NPR was among several outlets who said the film was “an exercise in exploitation, not empathy.”

But Vogue said much of the initial shock could fade over time.

“The story will be nice to ‘Blonde,’ a Hollywood biopic set in true anarchy mode… (which) in time could be considered a masterpiece.”