You won't be disappointed!

Touches You

Powerful

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

Lots of reviewers scoffing at the veracity of the premise of the story. Some claiming incredulity that anyone could believe the story. I don't really understand that criticism. For me the veracity of the story is secondary, or tertiary even, to its believability on screen. Having said that I don't really know what kind of lives the critics of the story have had - black and white, with simple 2-dimensional characters I should imagine. In real life (my life at least) people do unexpected things. Troubled people are even more likely to do the unexpected. So I found it quite believable.Anyway, I finally got around to watching this film on DVD recently, long after critics and fans had moved on to newer pickings. I watched it 3 times in a week, and will certainly watch it again in the near future. I think it was well cast and well acted, and planted firmly and believably in the late 1950s. Suffice to say Michelle Williams is heartbreakingly good as Marilyn Monroe.

I read THE PRINCE, THE SHOWGIRL, AND ME by Colin Clark only two or three years back, and it was an enjoyable enough book. But I had no particular interest in seeing the film that had already been made from it. I was wrong! The movie is something of a sleeper, or, if you will, a minor delight throughout, almost totally because of the performances, but also because the film seems a bit more moving, and certainly catches Marilyn Monroe's character better than does the book. And therein the big surprise: Michelle Williams is downright wonderful as Monroe, by far the best of the various Marilyn Monroes (or pastiches of same) that we have seen over the years. Although not as astounding as the original in purely physical terms, she does look very much like her, and manages to always sound like Monroe without the constant added breathy quality that all the others overindulge themselves in. I must say right here that I have never been a big Monroe fan, for I feel she had a natural but very limited acting talent (one can hardly imagine her playing Lady Macbeth, Norma Desmond or Stella Dallas). Michelle Williams's performance as her in this film is probably ten times better than she could have done it herself. One feels and feels for this Marilyn Monroe, much more so than one ever felt for any original Monroe character (except maybe in portions of BUS STOP). Williams also doesn't sing quite as well as Marilyn could and occasionally did; Monroe's singing voice was both more musical and more sexy. A wonderful job, and I obviously must see more of Ms. Williams. Kenneth Branagh (he's the real reason I bought the film) was superb throughout as Olivier; even if he never looks anything like him, he certainly sounds like him in the amazing variety of his subtle vocal inflections (of which Olivier was the absolute master). Also, in 1956 Olivier, even with all that princely make-up, still had, at 49, the remnants of his very handsome youthful self. Branagh is a great actor, but handsome? Afraid not. Julia Ormond as Vivien Leigh did okay, but looked a bit too solidly built for Vivien, who was really a very fragile-looking and often sickly woman by this time, Judi Dench was fine as Sybil Thorndike, Eddie Redmayne perfect for the storyteller, but I just loved the severe and almost ambitiously catatonic state that Zoe Wanamaker wandered around in 90% of the time as Paula Strassberg (the nearest thing Olivier had to a Nemesis on Earth!). Wanamaker, American-born, English-raised and now back to an American accent as the Mentor from Hell, who even goes so far as to call Marilyn 'bubbala' in one scene, is someone who adds stature to any cast she appears in, but this is as unlikely a role as I have ever seen her in. Anyway, a very enjoyable and moving film on a subject I had no expectation of being moved by. Bravo! (Gratuitously added comment: More than once in this film, Marilyn is referred to as the biggest female movie star in the world. See how telling a lie over and over again can make it seem like the truth? I would suggest that box-office receipts of the 1950s would show that Elizabeth Taylor, Doris Day, possibly Susan Hayward, and most definitely of all Deborah Kerr, were all bigger stars than Marilyn, even if she might have been the most publicized Hollywood figure of that decade.)

Despite a fact-based story that strains credibility, an insightful look at the cinematic phenomena that was Marilyn Monroe makes the 2011 docudrama My Week with Marilyn worth watching.This film centers on an aspiring English show biz hopeful named Colin Clark who has been hired to be the Third Assistant Director to Sir Laurence Olivier during production of the film The Prince and the Showgirl and how Colin inexplicably becomes the only person that Marilyn trusts on the set of the film, and that includes her acting coach Paula Strasberg, who was a permanent fixture in Marilyn's life during this period.Director Simon Curtis has mounted an expensive, fact-based drama that so accurately brings to the screen the mania behind Marilyn and though it provides some mixed messages regarding the woman vs the myth, the messages are convincingly projected here. We always think that there's nothing new to learn about Marilyn at this point and this film doesn't really provide any new insight into the sex symbol, except for the possible fact that like a lot Marilyn's handlers, Marilyn was also aware that Marilyn Monroe was a "product" and that she was somebody else...someone else who whose deep-rooted sadness stemmed from the lack of strong parenting and that the feeling no one really loved her, including current spouse Arthur Miller.As expected with any film about Marilyn, the film documents the production schedule delays due to Marilyn's chronic lateness, the constant interference from Paula Strasberg, the inability to remember very simple lines, and best of all, Olivier's conflicted feelings about his leading lady...we see Olivier's aggravation with the actress' work ethic combined with his fascination with the woman who makes him feel young again and has wife Vivien Leigh more than concerned. I love the scene of Olivier sitting alone in a screening room being captivated by dailies of Marilyn. What I did find hard to believe here is that a movie star like Marilyn Monroe would become so completely enamored of a Third Assistant Director that she would forsake everyone else around her, including Olivier, Paula, and Arthur Miller.The film is well-cast with a nicely understated performance from Eddie Redmayne as Colin Clark, a young man who falls under the spell of Marilyn without even realizing it is happening. Kenneth Branaugh is charismatic as Laurence Olivier and mention should also be made of Julia Ormond as Vivien Leigh and a lovely turn from Dame Judi Dench as Dame Sybil Thorndyke, a co-star of The Prince and the Showgirl, who becomes Marilyn's onset Savior, but what this film has above everything else is a luminous, Oscar-nominated performance by Michelle Williams as Marilyn, a richly complex performance that nails Marilyn's vulnerability, insecurity, and best of all, her intelligence.The film boasts some impressive production values, including first rate cinematography and a lush music score and helps to make this film lovely to look at...along with the incredible Michelle Williams.

They look so real, but so what? Nobody born after about 1955 would know anything about Marilyn Monroe, and few would care.In this film she is portrayed as petulant, gullible, erratic, unfaithful, and only sometimes, as a brilliant actress, which is how she might wish to be remembered.The story of how Colin Clark met Monroe might be of interest to him, but few others? Eddie Redmayne does the part well, and so does Michelle Williams. Other great, but brief, performances come from Julia Ormond as Vivien Leigh and Lucy is Emma Watson, who clearly has a great future in the industry.But I very much doubt if there will ever be a film called "My Week with Emma Watson"!