02.19
Nominated for 2 Academy Awards – Best Actress (Michelle Williams) and Best Supporting Actor Kenneth Branagh
My Week With Marilyn is a high-quality enchanting film, a hugely enjoyable trifle, and may prove an eye-opener to generations too young to remember the allure of Marilyn Monroe. It is based on Colin Clark’s memoir of a week as third assistant director on the film set of The Prince and The Showgirl (1957).
The actress playing the showgirl was Marilyn Monroe (Michelle Williams), newly married to intellectual playwright Arthur Miller (Dougray Scott) and already having doubts about the relationship. Williams gives an exquisite performance, and brilliantly captures Marilyn’s voice, physical mannerisms, and vulnerabilty. Kenneth Branagh, brings a delightfully accurate portrayal of Sir Laurence Olivier: whose is endlessly exasperated by Marilyn’s lack of professionalism and uneasily aware that she looks better on screen than he does. Eddie Redmayne also excels in the challenging task of playing Clark, an intelligent but inexperienced 23-year-old who is tossed in the middle of a relationship with a pretty wardrobe mistress (Emma Watson) and a chance of love with the most famous woman on Earth. The film is worth seeing for its marvelous array of British acting talent. I especially enjoyed Judi Dench as the kindly Dame Sybil Thorndike, Jim Carter as a star-struck barman and Philip Jackson as Marilyn’s down-to-earth bodyguard. This is a bittersweet story of first love. This is a delightfully, classy movie and Michelle Williams gives an Oscar worthy performance in the role she was born to play.
