Running Time: 1 hour, 39 minutes
Rating: R
Director: Simon Curtis
Quick Impressions:
Who can resist a movie in which Kenneth Branagh plays Sir Lawrence Olivier? That detail alone is bound to make this film a trivia question in the future. Still, it’s always nerve-wracking to go to a movie about Marilyn Monroe (even when she’s played by the extremely talented Michelle Williams), especially when the film is based on the memoir of someone claiming to have known her terribly well for a short time.
When I was in fifth grade, I remember walking down our stairs and seeing Marilyn Monroe for the first time—on our 19” TV, running for her life toward the end of the movie Niagra. My jaw dropped. I thought, Who is this beautiful woman? Why would anyone want to kill her? I almost fell down the stairs. This started an intense obsession that lasted for the next three years. I saw every Marilyn Monroe movie possible and devoured every biography available (to my parents’ slight alarm).
Of course, I went to this movie a bit suspicious of Colin Clark (perhaps unfairly). So many relatively unknown people seem suddenly to recall brief, turbulent, meaningful love affairs with Marilyn Monroe decades after her death. After watching the movie, I will say that whether Clark’s week with Marilyn actually happened doesn’t matter much. His claims are not exactly grandiose, and the portrayal of what the set of The Prince and the Showgirl was like seems accurate to me. (I wasn’t there, obviously, but I have read a lot about it, and attempting to ferret out the truth about Monroe’s life was how I first became aware that some sources are not reliable.) On the drive to the movie theater, I realized my husband knows nothing about Marilyn Monroe (having met me during a different obsession) and quickly briefed him on details of her life that might be relevant. Almost every single thing I told him came up during the movie. That means two things 1) My Week with Marilyn doesn’t tell us anything staggeringly new or deep 2) What it does say about Marilyn Monroe adheres to mainstream biographical information about her.
The Good:
Overall, the acting in the film is superb, and the story does juxtapose two of my favorite subjects—Marilyn Monroe and England. (It’s like I’m reliving all my adolescent obsessions at once when you get moments like, “Hello, Marilyn Monroe. Look at this portrait by Hans Holbein.”) Chiefly because of the strength of the performances, the movie manages to be consistently entertaining, even though in terms of plot, very little happens. People who know a lot about Marilyn Monroe aren’t going to find this film revelatory in any way (which is probably good). I’m not sure that people who don’t know much about Marilyn Monroe will learn much from this movie, though—unless they’re surprised to find that she’s enigmatic and complex.
The message of the movie seems to be summed up in Colin Clark’s shrewd assessment that Lawrence Olivier was a respected actor who hoped to become a movie star, and Marilyn Monroe was a movie star who wanted to be a respected actress, and The Prince and the Showgirl wasn’t going to help either of them. In the careers of Monroe and Olivier, The Prince and the Showgirl is a weird and relatively insignificant blip. I find it strange that The Sleeping Prince was a hit on stage with Olivier and Vivien Leigh. Their collective star power must have carried it because the material is not exactly great.
Now career aside, Marilyn Monroe’s sojourn in England probably was quite significant in terms of her relationship with husband Arthur Miller, but My Week with Marilyn only suggests this, not pretending it can actually address or give true insight into Monroe and Miller’s troubled relationship. The most My Week with Marilyn can tell viewers is that Marilyn had problems but she also had an uncanny strength. That’s for the best. At least Colin Clark doesn’t pretend to understand her. There’s certainly no shame in admitting that you don’t understand Marilyn Monroe.
Probably because it’s based on a memoir, My Week with Marilyn has the feeling of a coming-of-age story. That one week makes a huge impact on the impressionable Colin Clark. He really learns something that will change his life forever. We have no idea what that is, but as long as he does, I guess it’s okay.
The Negatives:
The most glaring flaw of this movie is something that can’t be helped. In her interactions with Clark and the people on the movie set, Williams makes as good a Monroe as anyone could expect. But when Olivier goes in to watch the rushes and declares that the magic is all there on screen—it isn’t.
Marilyn Monroe does seem to work magic on film. She has a charisma for the camera and a kind of screen presence that can’t be replicated. So when you watch Kenneth Branagh pretending to be Lawrence Olivier being moved and baffled by the magic he sees on screen as Michelle Williams pretends to be Marilyn Monroe, it just doesn’t work. Instead of being baffled by the magic on the screen, the audience is baffled by Olivier’s reaction in the screening room. Why does he find her so enchanting?
If anybody watching My Week with Marilyn watches the rushes and sighs in wonder, Wow, how is she so beautiful and enchanting on screen?, then that person clearly has never seen the actual Marilyn Monroe on screen.
Most Oscar-worthy Moment (Michelle Williams):
Michelle Williams is a wonderfully talented actress, and she has a certain cinematic shimmer herself. But she doesn’t look like much like Marilyn Monroe. Her nose is completely, conspicuously wrong. Whoever did her make-up works miracles because even though her nose still isn’t quite right, it’s much less distracting than I thought it would be.
Even though the “Marilyn” in the finished film doesn’t seem quite right, Williams is very good as Monroe in the rest of the movie. Hers is the best Marilyn Monroe I’ve seen so far (which isn’t saying a lot).
She’s at her best during her first conversation with Colin at her temporary home. She also seems very like the real Marilyn Monroe during her interview with the press early in the film (probably because Williams had access to actual interviews).
The Other Performances:
Watching Kenneth Branagh portray Sir Lawrence Olivier is like enjoying an inside joke. It must be a fun challenge for Branagh to play Olivier, and he’s marvelous when he’s pensively reciting Shakespeare while trying to figure out how to muddle through a shoot that’s becoming increasingly strained with every new day. I don’t think the part gives Branagh opportunity to give the kind of performance that wins Oscars, but he might get a nomination.
Eddie Redmayne is wonderful as Colin Clark, who not surprisingly is one of the most sympathetic characters in the movie. (John Smith also comes off really well in The Generall Historie of Virginia.) Redmayne gives a wonderful performance, and his character is sympathetic enough to keep the audience interested in the movie. Of course, he’s not portraying someone recognizable to most people, so his part is less challenging. Still, he’s a charismatic actor in his own right, strong enough to carry a movie without help from fascinating dead stars. I’d like to see him in something else in the future.
Julia Ormond is a fine actress, but she’s the most miscast person in movies. She doesn’t make a very convincing Vivien Leigh, though she makes a perfectly fine troubled wife who is not Vivien Leigh. (She also suffers from comparisons to Audrey Hepburn. I’ve never seen her in anything where she seemed right for the part, which is so puzzling because there’s nothing wrong with her acting ability. Maybe in person she seems evocative of all kinds of famous people, and then when you put her on film, it doesn’t show.)
I really liked Emma Watson as Lucy. It’s so nice to see her as someone other than Hermione Granger, and she gets to show more range than usual here just because she’s playing someone who isn’t Hermione.
Judi Dench was wonderful as Dame Sybil Thorndike, a seasoned actress who persists in showing kindness and understanding to Marilyn Monroe even when Marilyn doesn’t seem to deserve it. Dench is a fantastic actress, anyway, turning in solid performances apparently effortlessly, but she’s especially good here, though admittedly the character helps a lot. How can the audience not fall in love with the one person who displays a proper sense of courtesy when working with the obviously troubled Marilyn Monroe?
Dench’s Thorndike clearly senses Monroe’s fragility and has the insight to see that even if the American star is being unreasonable and unprofessional, Olivier’s method of condescending to her one moment and browbeating her the next can only be counterproductive. Dame Sybil seems aware that no matter how sticky the situation, one can only control one’s own behavior, and Dench conveys this beautifully.
I really like Dominic Cooper. I thought he was fantastic as Howard Stark in Captain America, and he’s also pretty good as Milton Greene. Dougray Scott makes an adequate Arthur Miller, Toby Jones is just fine as Arthur Jacobs, and Derek Jackobi is good as always as Sir Owen Morshead.
I was really surprised to see Zoe Wanamaker as Paula Strasberg, but I thought she did a pretty good job of it, especially given the confines of the script. Strasberg garners rancor from everyone else around Monroe, but you can tell from Wanamaker’s performance that she genuinely cares for Marilyn and wants to protect her, though her efforts may seem frustratingly misguided to others.
Overall:
I enjoyed My Week with Marilyn but didn’t find it life changing. Playing Marilyn Monroe with any degree of success is no easy task, and Michelle Williams does a wonderful job. Based on the performances I’ve seen so far, she definitely deserves an Oscar nomination, though (again so-far) I’d say Viola Davis gives a stronger lead performance in The Help.