Review: 'My Week with Marilyn'

Film: My Week with Marilyn
Director: Simon Curtis
Cast: Eddie Redmayne, Michelle Williams, Kenneth Branagh, Judi Dench, Dominic Cooper 
Rating: ***

 

 

Behind that vermillion pout and ashen-yet-captivating face lived a woman longing to be loved. Nothing new, you’d say. Having lived in a number of foster homes after her mentally ill mother was sent off to an asylum, Norma Jean Baker, popularly known as Marilyn Monroe, had married thrice by the time she was 30.

 

“In the beginning they always seem like the right one,” she dreamily exclaims, while in bed with “third assistant director” Colin Clark on her film The Prince and the Showgirl (1957). This one line sums up the sex symbol’s unrelenting quest of finding love. And on the sets of The Prince and the Showgirl she found it in the company of a “gofer”.

 

She was newly married to playwright Arthur Miller during the filming of The Prince and the Showgirl, and cracks had begun to show suggests My Week with Marilyn directed by Simon Curtis.

My Week with Marilyn is adapted from the memoirs of Colin Clark (played by Eddie Redmayne), who Marilyn took as a confidante during the shooting of the film. He was “on her side” every time she needed assurance and shelter from the frustrated Lawrence Olivier (played by an excellent Kenneth Branagh). Marilyn’s lateness, dependency on pills and omnipresence of acting coach Paula Strasberg (played by Zoë Wanamaker) had Olivier at his wits’ end. Olivier who directed and cast himself as the Prince was ticked off with Marilyn & Paula’s insistence on “method” acting.

 

“You just do what you’re good at,” fumes Olivier in one scene, reminding her not to “act” but use her sex appeal.

 

Olivier’s lack of patience with Marilyn left her terrified, unable to give her best. She was willing to give the ordinary life a shot and Colin lead the way. The eye-fluttering, always tense Marilyn found solace in Colin, being her giggly, bubble-headed blonde self when with him. Colin is drawn to her unmatched beauty, a trip to the Windsor Palace, skinny dipping in the Thames, are just about enough to seduce any average boy. And Marilyn let Colin have his turn.

 

There is no more than one already knows in this feature, but the stunning Michelle Williams introduces us to Marilyn the reluctant Showgirl, Marilyn the insecure and terrified actress, and Marilyn the real woman behind the blinding gaze of the silver screen, all with aplomb. The camera and people love her, and that is when her insecurities evaporate magically leaving a pouting, playfully mischievous Marilyn for all to breathe in. Williams’ temerity makes Marilyn believable enough not to imagine anyone else doing the role. She’s that good.

 

Eddie Redmayne as the starry-eyed Colin Clark does a decent job, absorbing Marilyn’s beauty and charisma like he’s the only one watching her. His romance with a wardrobe assistant (Emma Watson) is superficially suspended, making no difference to the already flimsy plot.

 

Kenneth Branagh’s Olivier is engaging (in contrast to the plot of the film), charming and witty. The unsympathetic air about him could terrify anyone on a film set, let alone a fragile “filmstar” Marilyn Monroe. Judi Dench who plays Sybil Thorndike in The Prince… appears in some of best scenes including one where she accuses Olivier of bullying Marilyn in a country she does not belong in.

 

Film within a film is always a fascinating concept and Simon Curtis’ direction makes this one an enjoyable ride thanks to the perfect casting. Julia Ormond, Emma Watson and Dominic Cooper are largely underused, but they’re unimportant to Colin’s relationship with Marilyn, so that’s okay.

 

Lively performances, a weak yet real story and Michelle Williams are reasons My Week with Marilyn should not be missed. That pretty face is sure haunting.