Book Review: More Than Love: An Intimate Portrait of My Mother, Natalie Wood by Natasha Gregson Wagner (2020)

The cover of More Than Love, by Natasha Gregson Wagner, 2020.

Actress and author Natasha Gregson Wagner.

Natasha Gregson Wagner’s memoir More Than Love: An Intimate Portrait of My Mother, Natalie Wood was released in May, at the same time the documentary she produced about her mother’s life, What Remains Behind premiered. Both the book and the documentary are essential for fans of Natalie Wood, as they give us an idea of who the woman behind the iconic movies was. 

More Than Love is a memoir about loss, and it’s often a heartbreaking book to read. As Gregson Wagner writes at the beginning of the book: “Losing my mother was the defining moment of my life. No other event would ever again so sharply etch its mark upon my soul, or so completely color the way I navigate the world, or leave my heart quite as broken.” (p.4) 

Natasha’s father was the British agent Richard Gregson, and her mother was of course, the gorgeous and talented actress Natalie Wood. Wood filed for divorce from Gregson in 1971, when Natasha was less than a year old. The following year, Wood remarried her first husband, actor Robert Wagner. Natasha got along very well with both her dad and her stepdad, and she refers to them as “Daddy Gregson” and “Daddy Wagner.” 

Young Natasha had a happy childhood, and the Wood/Wagner house was filled with family, friends, and lots of activity. But as Natasha grew older, she worried about her mother more and more. When Wood and Wagner went out to dinner, Natasha would often call the restaurant in order to speak to her mother and make sure that she was okay, and to ask when her parents would be coming home. Of course, Natasha’s premonitions that something bad would happen to her mother came true when her mother drowned off the coast of Catalina Island on November 29, 1981. Natalie Wood was 43 years old, and Natasha was 11. 

More Than Love chronicles Gregson Wagner’s life and her struggles to deal with her mother’s loss. Gregson Wagner became an actress as well, and the book reveals how she has used her work as an actress as a continuing connection to her mother. Ultimately, the book comes to a happy conclusion, as Gregson Wagner is now happily married and has a daughter, Clover. It’s clear that Gregson Wagner finds motherhood to be an extremely fulfilling role. 

More Than Love isn’t simply a book about a tragedy: it's a book about the after effects of a tragedy. For the survivors, those after effects linger on long after the tragedy itself. Gregson Wagner is an excellent writer, and she takes us through all the difficult emotions she’s had to deal with since her mother’s death. More Than Love isn’t just a ghost-written celebrity book with nothing to say: it’s an emotional catharsis as Natasha Gregson Wagner puts her soul down on the page. 

In the years since she’s become a mother, Gregson Wagner has also taken a more active role in managing and shaping her mother’s legacy. That includes launching a perfume, co-authoring the 2016 coffee table book Natalie Wood: Reflections on a Legendary Life, and now the documentary and More Than Love. By sharing her stories of her legendary mother, Gregson Wagner has taken the focus off of her mother’s tragic death and restored the focus to where it should be: on her life and her work.

Movie Review: Natalie Wood: What Remains Behind, Directed by Laurent Bouzereau (2020)

Poster for Natalie Wood: What Remains Behind, 2020.

Actress Natasha Gregson Wagner, Natalie Wood's daughter and one of the producers of Natalie Wood: What Remains Behind. (Photo from the Natalie Wood Instagram account.)

I’m a big fan of Natalie Wood, and I was very excited when the news came out that her daughter Natasha Gregson Wagner was producing a documentary about her mother. Natalie Wood: What Remains Behind, directed by Laurent Bouzereau, premiered on May 5th on HBO. For fans of Natalie Wood, it’s a must-see.

The fact that Natasha Gregson Wagner produced Natalie Wood: What Remains Behind means that we get to see an amazing array of behind the scenes photos and film footage. Both of Wood’s children—Natasha Gregson Wagner and Courtney Wagner—were interviewed, as well as both of Natalie’s husbands, Richard Gregson and Robert Wagner, her personal assistant Mart Crowley, the author of the groundbreaking 1968 play The Boys in the Band, two time co-star Robert Redford, and others. What Remains Behind is a real behind the scenes look at this iconic actress. 

What Natasha Gregson Wagner says in the trailer becomes the theme of the movie: “There’s been so much focus on how she died, that it’s overshadowed who she was as a person.” Of course, we all know how Natalie Wood died: she drowned off Catalina Island in 1981 at the age of 43. There has been an endless amount of speculation about the events of that night, and What Remains Behind addresses the mysterious circumstances around Natalie’s death during an emotional interview with Natasha and Robert Wagner. Personally, I think Natalie Wood’s death was a tragic accident, and that’s the point of view that What Remains Behind takes.

What Remains Behind is very well structured, although it isn’t strictly chronological. The film flows together very nicely. I was a little disappointed that Warren Beatty wasn’t interviewed for it, but it takes Beatty such a long time to decide to do anything that I’m not totally surprised.

It’s apparent that Natasha Gregson Wagner wants to change the narrative about her mother. Gregson Wagner wants her mother to be seen as a whole person, rather than just a tragic figure who died too young. Over the last 5 years or so, as Natasha has taken a more visible role in publicizing and shaping her mother’s legacy, I think she has changed the narrative about Natalie Wood’s life. Natasha has launched a fragrance, published a beautiful coffee table book, 2016’s Natalie Wood: Reflections on a Legendary Life, and now we have What Remains Behind, and Natasha’s memoir More Than Love, which was also released on Tuesday. What Natasha has done is given us a more vibrant picture of the woman who was Natalie Wood. Natasha has ensured that her mother will be remembered not only for being an amazing and beautiful actress, but also a vibrant woman who was a dedicated mother and a great friend to all who knew her.