My Week With Marilyn

2011 gave us My Week With Marilyn, a picture about the time that Monroe spent in England during the making of The Prince And The Showgirl, with Laurence Olivier. The film was reasonably well received with Michelle Williams performance receiving a nomination at the 84th Academy Awards, along with Branagh for his performance as Olivier.

The film despite being a delightful romp and mildly entertaining, yet has rather a lot of issues. The film itself seems unbalanced, or rather not enough 'Marilyn', too much 'My', the films seems to have far too focused on the story of Colin Clark, and gives Marilyn Monroe far too little screen time, that said, she manages to light up every scene in which she appears. The major problem with this lack of balance is that it means that we truly only see the worst of Marilyn and never the best. We are shown her tantrums, her maneating qualities and her breakdowns, we are also shown the way she seems to break mens hearts, and the way she has week long flings with different men, hence the title of the film.

Whereas I feel that making the young assistant the center of the film gives the film focus, and the idea of the length of the film a week keeps it from dragging, i feel that in the editing, the film spends too much time dealing with this young mans story, on his plight and his dream, and not enough on that of Mrs Monroe, which is a shame given that Williams is simply a delight. The film also puts far too much emphasis on the other negative aspects of Monroe's life, such as her instability, the sicophancy of the people around, and her group of gold digging crony employees.

In contrast, there is one scene in which Colin and Marilyn spend a day together, at Windsor castle, and these 20 minutes of screen time are absolutely delightful, and Williams manages to be the perfect tribute to Marilyn Monroe's light, her freedom and her joyousness, if this tone had been kept throughout the rest of the movie, it would have been much more successful, and would have been a brighter and more enjoyable movie, as it is the film fails to delve into the mind of Ms Monroe, preferring to concentrate on her meltdowns and tantrums.

On a lighter note the film is stunningly beautiful, and manages to perfectly capture the essence of the 1950's and the beauty of England, and despite the films flaws, Michelle Williams is simply perfect in capturing the essence and fragility that was, is and always will be; Marilyn Monroe. Rating: B+

Marilyn Monroe: All people ever see is Marilyn Monroe. As soon as they realize I'm not her, they run. 

What do you think, did anyone else enjoy this film? What else could have been done better? Let everyone know in the comments section below!