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Amazon.co.uk Review
Anyone doubting the layered, nuanced, and heartbreaking acting abilities of Michelle Williams will find My Week with Marilyn a tremendous revelation. And Williams fans will enjoy it even more. In My Week with Marilyn Williams takes on the formidable challenge of playing Marilyn Monroe, and does so with depth and assuredness, and without resorting to caricature. Williams's Marilyn commands the screen with pain and delicacy, and doesn't let go until the final credits. My Week with Marilyn focuses on a small time frame in Monroe's life, right after her marriage to Arthur Miller. Monroe, already "the world's most famous woman," still feels the need for validation as an actress. What better way to achieve that, she believes, than committing to co-starring with Laurence Olivier in The Prince and the Showgirl, a film she firmly believed would finally cement her reputation as a serious actress. My Week with Marilyn is based on the short memoir of Colin Clark, a crew member on The Prince and the Showgirl, who quickly became the confidant of the wildly insecure Monroe and watched a train wreck of egos--mostly Olivier's and Monroe's--collide in a fiery near-disaster. Kenneth Branagh gives an uncharacteristically restrained performance as the exasperated Olivier, resentful of the "new blood" in Hollywood that the young Monroe represents, and disdainful of her cult-like devotion to Method acting. (And of Monroe's chronic tardiness, which threatens to undermine the veddy, veddy strict British work schedule.) Eddie Redmayne plays Clark with a sweet, gentle veneer, someone who grows to care genuinely about the complex Monroe. Julia Ormond is clipped and proper as Olivier's then-wife, Vivien Leigh, and Emma Watson shows a lovely gravitas as Lucy, Monroe's acting coach. But it's Williams who gives the revelatory performance, capturing with painful intensity the insecurity that begins to seep out of Monroe like a fearful sweat. "Excuse my horrible face," she blurts out, while looking nothing less than her usual radiant self. Where does this tragic insecurity come from? My Week with Marilyn doesn't attempt to answer the unanswerable, but instead shines a light on the very real woman who became lost in the giant shadow of legend. --A.T. Hurley
DVD Description
My Week with Marilyn is the true story of a star-struck boy who falls in love with the biggest celebrity in the world, Marilyn Monroe. 23-year-old Colin Clark was determined to break into the film business and his first job was The Prince and The Showgirl--the film that was set to be the smash hit of the year famously uniting the biggest stars of the day, Marilyn Monroe and Sir Laurence Olivier. On honeymoon in Britain with her new husband, Arthur Miller, Marilyn is excited about the project but quickly becomes desperate to run away from her Hollywood entourage, the pressures of work and the press who hound her. For Marilyn, Colin is a welcome antidote and he offers her everything she craves when, together, they escape the film set to get closer in an idyllic Britain.
Academy Award® nominee Michelle Williams stars as Marilyn Monroe (Blue Valentine, Shutter Island, Brokeback Mountain) and is joined by a stellar cast including Eddie Redmayne as Colin Clark (The Other Boleyn Girl, The Good Shepherd), Kenneth Branagh as Sir Laurence Olivier (Thor, Wallander), Dame Judi Dench as Dame Sybil Thorndike (Quantum of Solace), Julia Ormond as Vivien Leigh (Che, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button) and Dougray Scott as Arthur Miller (Mission Impossible II).
Special Features
Academy Award® nominee Michelle Williams stars as Marilyn Monroe (Blue Valentine, Shutter Island, Brokeback Mountain) and is joined by a stellar cast including Eddie Redmayne as Colin Clark (The Other Boleyn Girl, The Good Shepherd), Kenneth Branagh as Sir Laurence Olivier (Thor, Wallander), Dame Judi Dench as Dame Sybil Thorndike (Quantum of Solace), Julia Ormond as Vivien Leigh (Che, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button) and Dougray Scott as Arthur Miller (Mission Impossible II).
Special Features
- The Untold Story of an American Icon
- Director's Commentary
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A MINOR CLASSIC,
By
This review is from: My Week with Marilyn [DVD] (DVD)
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.
15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
An interesting drama based on an assistant director's brief encounter with a Hollywood icon,
By
This review is from: My Week with Marilyn [DVD] (DVD)
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.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
great!,
This review is from: My Week with Marilyn [DVD] (DVD)
A great portrayal and casting. Not too slow moving and has good structure to the movie. A must have on dvd!
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