My Week with Marilyn [DVD]

Michelle Williams and Eddie Redmayne star in this biopic about Colin Clark's week with Marilyn Monroe when she was filming The Prince and the Showgirl (1957) with Sir Laurence Olivier. Marilyn Monroe was at the height of her career when she made this film and later went on to make one of the top all-time comedies with Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon, Some Like It Hot (1959).

But, apparently, Marilyn wasn't the easiest person to work with and she drove Sir Laurence Olivier (played by Kenneth Branagh) to distraction with her tardiness and forgetting her lines. In the movie, My Week With Marilyn, she is shown as a beautiful yet pill-popping, heart-breaking, vulnerable woman. The movie has some lovely moments, not least when Marilyn disrobes at the river and Colin's eyes nearly fall out.

I'm not totally convinced about the lead performances though. I mean, Michelle Williams doesn't, to me, quite achieve the breathy giggly voice that was Marilyn Monroe's trademark although she is very beautiful and did her mannerisms well. Kenneth Branagh, I think, does better as the movie progresses, as the stuffy, great, thespian Olivier trying to cope with Marilyn, the method actor. But don't get me wrong, it's a highly watchable movie even though I got a sense of disatisfaction from it. I suppose that it is because the real life characters of Monroe and Olivier are simply inimitable.

Mustn't forget to give the great Dame Judi Dench a mention. She plays a supporting role but as always is simply brilliant. I love Derek Jacobi, and he appears in a minor role as Colin's Godfather. Zoe Wanamaker also stars.

Michelle Williams also starred in Shutter Island (2010) with Leonardo DiCaprio, and Brokeback Mountain (2005). Eddie Redmayne also starred in The Other Boleyn Girl (2008) and The Good Shepherd (2006)

Colin Clark went on to be a successful writer. His book, My Week With Marilyn, is available at Amazon. You can Look Inside.

I thought this film was totally enjoyable and charming. Quite surprisingly good.

Why surprising? Because it has so many stars in it that I feared it was one of those projects where the producer had just decided to throw money at a somewhat predictable storyline. But Judy Dench, Kenneth Branagh and the others certainly live up to their considerable reputations; and the two main actors are excellent as the hero, Clark, and Marilynne. It is really a bitter-sweet fairy-tale, but one which is entirely believable. A very accurate and amusing picture is painted, of the vast gulf which existed in the late 1950s between British and American culture, two styles of acting, and two ways of life.

I think the makers of this film have understood the psychology of Marilynne Monroe very well. She had created a role which she could play to perfection, but which she did not always want to play. It is very telling that at one point she asks 'shall I be HER?' Her frailty and vulnerability shows through. You begin to understand what drove her to drink, and worse.

It is a minor point but I was also fascinated to learn for the first time that the hero, Clark, was the second son of 'Lord Clark of Civilisation' and the younger brother of Alan Clark, the diarist, politician and roguish aristocrat who swam round the moat of his castle once a year at Christmas time.

It's the summer of 1956 & the world's most famous film star Marilyn Monroe (Michelle Williams) is in Britain shooting The Prince and The Showgirl [DVD] [1957]. After constantly fluffing her lines due to her not understanding her screen character it seems everyone has lost patience with her, including Director/Actor Laurence Olivier (Kenneth Branagh). Also her new husband Arthur Miller has gone back home to the US following a row leaving Marilyn feeling alone.

Colin Clark is a 23 year old starstruck 3rd Assistant Director on his first job in the film industry. The 2 become close as Monroe trusts Clark's honesty towards her & he helps her to overcome the pressure of her work.

Instead of the usual biopic formula that serms to be popular in Hollywood these days this film simply focuses on a brief period in Monroe's life. By keeping to one story though it does give the film a chance to develop better instead of racing through events but some may find the film uninteresting as there are far more important stories of Monroe to tell & there is debate to exactly how much of Clark's diaries are really true. However I feel the film accurately shows us a side of Marilyn many people may not have seen before. For example, what is Marilyn Monroe like when she's not being Marilyn Monroe? Michelle Williams portrays her as a vulnerable film star desperate to become a great Actress but struggling to live up to expectations of her. In one scene when talking about her 3 marriages she tells Clark that men want to be with Marilyn Monroe but run away when they realise she isn't her. In the privacy of her country home she is lonely & sad, drinking & taking pills to escape her inner demons. When in public she 'becomes' Monroe, flirting & smiling with her fans & playing to the camera's.

Williams captures the essence of Monroe in both her public & private life exceedingly well. It will be no surprise if this performance gets her a third academy award nomination in 2012. She even sings too! Branagh does a good job of impersonating Olivier. There is also decent support from veteran Judi Dench & rising star Emma Watson as well as Zoe Wanamaker (TV's My Family) as Marilyn's acting coach Paula Strasberg who on more than one occasion annoys Director Olivier! Little known Eddie Redmayne takes on the task of not being overshadowed by the much more famous cast around him & is more than adequate in his starting role as Colin Clark.

Whilst at times feeling like a TV drama rather than a theatrical movie (which is no bad thing) this film is definitely worth a watch. I have a feeling it might play better on the small screen as opposed to an evening at the local cinema but is worth a look if only for the performance by oscar worthy Michelle Williams.