My Week With Marilyn [M]

Young and aspiring film enthusiast, Colin Clark leaves home to get a job in the movies. Through determination he lands a job as a third assistant on a new film starring Sir Lawrence Olivier and Marilyn Monroe. At first Marilyn’s behaviour and reaction to this theatrical and alien world of old England is shaky and unmanageable, but when she begins a weeklong relationship with young Colin, her insecurities and self-pities begin to ebb. This is Colin’s retelling of his week with Marilyn. 

This movie strikes a great emotive response from a wide audience of generational variety. People who lived back in the glory days when Marilyn Monroe was at the absolute apex of universal fame will watch it and reminisce and admire the performances from both Michelle Williams and Kenneth Branagh. The younger audience, myself included, who missed out on the Monroe phenomenon, will watch this film and be amazed at how universally admired this actress was. The fame and the story of Marilyn Monroe is one of history and maybe even legend, certainly in the cinematic view, and this movie, which was filled with romance, pressure, two-facedness, drama, glamour, and comedy, really conveys just how loved and admire this Hollywood starlet was. It’s a glittering gem surrounded by the shimmer of a jet engine of a movie and I absolutely was rapt from beginning to finish. 

Young and aspiring film enthusiast, Colin Clark leaves home to get a job in the movies. Through determination he lands a job as a third assistant on a new film starring Sir Lawrence Olivier and Marilyn Monroe. At first Marilyn’s behaviour and reaction to this theatrical and alien world of old England is shaky and unmanageable, but when she begins a weeklong relationship with young Colin, her insecurities and self-pities begin to ebb. This is Colin’s retelling of his week with Marilyn. 

Michelle Williams who stars as the blonde bombshell herself, delivered a most beautiful and captivating performance that was glamorous, sparkling, fun, teasing, and classy, but at the same time frightened, self-pitying, and insecure. She was absolutely enchanting. 

Special applause must also go to Kenneth Branagh who plays the role of Lawrence Olivier. Kenneth seems to playing the nasties more and more recently in the films that I’ve seen, but why not for he does them so well. In this movie he was frank, theatrical, frustrated, but underneath all that callousness he was also insecure and self-pitying. 

Starring Eddie Redmayne, Julia Ormond, Dominic Cooper, Toby Jones, Dougray Scott, Emma Watson, and Judi Dench, My Week With Marilyn was a beautiful film that was filled with drama, glamour, frustration, romance, two-facedness, and comedy. It really was a very classy and sparkling movie and I loved every minute of it.