My Week with Marilyn Review: I Smell An Oscar Nomination

Anyone who steps foot in my apartment could tell you that My Week with Marilyn would be a film of interest to me.  On the living room wall there are two iconic photos of the Marilyn Monroe. In the hallway there’s a monochromatic, pink picture of her with a famous quote. In the kitchen hangs that classic shot from Seven Year Itch in which she stands over a subway grate, holding down the skirt of her white dress as it flies up around her.

What was it about Marilyn Monroe that captured the world in the 1950s and continues to capture people today? Sure, she was beautiful, but so were others – Jane Russell, for example, was sexiness personified, but a 14-year-old today won’t know who she was. They would, however, know Marilyn.  Fifty years later, and there has been no one else like her.

She was a paradox – sexy, but innocent. Worldly, but naïve. Womanly, but childlike.  She was a combination of opposites wrapped in a curvaceous, blond exterior. How could anyone capture that complexity?  I don’t know, but Michelle Williams has done it.

Before I get to my review, I’m going to make a bet now – Michelle Williams will be nominated for Best Actress at the Academy Awards this year. Will she win? I’m not sure, but there’s a definite possibility.

Let me start my explaining that My Week with Marilyn is not a biography. In fact, she isn’t even the main character.  The film, based on a true story, is about Colin Clark (played by Eddie Redmayne), a 23-year-old living in England who weaseled his way into working on the set of The Prince and the Showgirl, a comedy starring Sir Laurence Olivier (Kenneth Branagh) and Marilyn Monroe. Colin is young and eager, and as one might expect, he becomes completely enthralled by the beautiful Marilyn.

But working with Marilyn isn’t easy. She’s nearly always late for shooting, and her acting coach, Paula (Zoë Wanamaker), is attached to her hip, always complimenting her talent and sparring with Olivier, who thinks the Method she teaches Marilyn is a waste of time. Marilyn lacks confidence in her ability, making the simplest scene a royal pain to shoot. She is encouraged by sweet, experienced co-star Dame Sybil Thorndike (Judi Dench), but Olivier frequently flies into rages, furious with Monroe and with her Method acting.

Colin is supposed to be keeping an eye on Marilyn (okay, let’s be frank – he’s supposed to spy on her) but his alliances quickly change when Miss Monroe bats her eyelashes at him and asks him whose side he is on. He forgets wanting to keep his job, forgets his girlfriend, Lucy (Emma Watson), and forgets that Marilyn is married to playwright Arthur Miller (Dougray Scott), who has left England for a few days during the filming.

Colin spends one week with Marilyn. It’s a week of adventure, rebellion, and crises. Marilyn, who is taking loads of pills at the time, is unpredictable and unstable, but Colin falls head over heels for her, despite warnings from everyone he knows.

The look of the film is superb, capturing perfectly the feel of 1950s England and blending it with classic Hollywood.  Michelle Williams is stellar as Marilyn, evoking all of her paradoxes and quirks so fully that I honestly forgot, at times, that I wasn’t watching the real Marilyn Monroe on screen. So much about this film was perfect – though it is not a perfect film.

The pacing felt off to me at times, moving too slowly at the beginning and then too quickly at the end. I’m not sure if it was really a pacing issue, though, or just a struggle to keep Redmayne’s Colin as the main character when those around him (especially Williams) made him seem like he ought to be in the background.  The parts of the story at the beginning felt dragged as the anticipation for more Marilyn-centered scenes built higher. Like I said, this movie is about Colin, but Colin could have been wallpaper, honestly, for as memorable or interesting as he was in comparison to Olivier, Thorndike, and Monroe.

I don’t think this is any judgment on Eddie Redmayne, who played the part believably and honestly. But acting royalty like Judi Dench and Kenneth Branagh effortlessly outshine him, and Michelle Williams steals every single scene she is a part of. With Colin being such a static, quiet character, it was nearly impossible for him to stand out.

But for the most part, this movie is excellent, and I definitely see Oscar buzz in its future. It’s a film worth seeing in theaters, particularly if you’re a fan of the classic Hollywood era like I am. It’s an interesting glimpse at the life of one of the most iconic sex symbols of the twentieth century, and a beautifully made film in and of itself.

Images courtesy of  Laurence Cendrowicz, The Weinstein Company and IMDBPro.