My Couple of Hours With Marilyn.
OK, I'm going to try not to lay it on too thick because, as you'll see in a moment, I am completely biased when it comes to the whole Old Hollywood/Tragic Superstars thing. I really love the whole schtick not just for the stories, but for the people -- the actors (and artists, et al) who appear to be more human the more problems they have. Marilyn Monroe being rather high on my list of favourites.
To the movie, what? My Week With Marilyn was good. I'm trying not to rave, lol, but it really was good. Nothing out of place at all -- the acting was very solid (even though Kenneth Branagh looks nothing like Laurence Olivier, but I guess he can't help that), the characters were properly written, the script moved easily and allowed the narrative to happen authentically and the look of the whole thing was incredible.
To be perfectly honest, I went into the cinema expecting to be disappointed and I was very pleasantly mistaken. I was thinking I'd be met with yet another schlocky big budget biopic...You know exactly what I'm talking about...The ones that cram way too much in, never settle on a proper story line, and the famous personality is completely overshadowed by tabloid bullshit. They feed audiences exactly what they expect and purposely miss out on telling anything even akin to the truth. This movie didn't do any of those things and honed neatly in on a single week or so and covered the filming of Marilyn Monroe's movie The Prince and the Showgirl with Lawrence Olivier and, in so doing, it managed to accurately (or reasonably accurately, I can't say for sure, I wasn't there in 1957 when the movie was filmed) capture the events that transpired. See: Marilyn's mostly innocent dalliance with a young production assistant named Colin Clark. I won't ruin it for you.
Michelle Williams played Monroe and I have to tell you, she was dead on. She got beautiful and bubbly Marilyn, she got naive and girlish Marilyn and she got, most importantly, I think, damaged, broken and extremely unhappy Marilyn. Each version of Monroe fit neatly together and produced a startling whole. This is the Marilyn Monroe that people long to see, I think. Not just who she was on camera, but who she was when she was alone, afraid, or in the company of the people who knew her. Also, she looked damn fine. Can't leave that out ;) Again, Olivier was played by Mr. Branagh, who decided to never move his lips while speaking. I'm not sure whether that was a trait particular to Sir Laurence Olivier, but it was fun to watch. He had some of the best lines in the movie including, but not limited to, one where he said that teaching Marilyn Monroe to act is like teaching Urdu to a badger. He was able to recognise, eventually, that it was Monroe's intense fear that made her the actress she was, and that was something he would never be able to recreate. He also recognised that he was never going to be the film actor that she was; his domain was the stage, without doubt. I found him unlikeable. A guy called Eddie Redmayne, whom I've never heard of, played Colin Clark, the young, lucky production assistant who became enamoured of Marilyn Monroe (he is only human, after all). I wasn't sure how to take him, at first, and I thought that maybe he was going to be a little too idealistic, but I think he knew how it was all going to end -- he wanted her to love him because he saw the Norma Jean beyond the Marilyn, but he knew she'd never be a full person without the facade. And she was married to Arthur Miller and no one's going to argue with that guy, lol. Emma Watson played the little part of Lucy, the design girl who is attracted to Colin. They go on a date or two but he blows her off to spend time with Marilyn (can't blame him, but still). It was lovely to see her onscreen again and I have to say, away from the bustling mind of Hermione Granger, she is -- in a simple way -- stunningly beautiful. She has a great smile and it would be a shame not to see her in something else sometime soon. Special mention to Zoe Wanamaker (Madame Hooch in Harry Potter, if you'll recall) who played Marilyn's method acting coach, Paula Strasberg. She spent much time talking the actress through scenes and down off ledges, but she also spoke to her in a way she could understand which was lovely to watch. Judi Dench was in it also, and she was a lot of fun as the actress Dame Sybil Thorndike, who appeared to have a soft spot for Ms Monroe.
Was it 100% perfect, despite my fanatical raving, I'm going to say no. The perspective was a little narrow (told only from the point of view of Colin Clark and a diary he kept through the filming process) and, naturally, biased in Marilyn's favour. I think Branagh's Olivier was a little hammy, but maybe that's what he was going for. I think, in some ways, Monroe was made out to be a bit of a...'Hussy' isn't quite the right word, but an 'indiscriminate heartbreaker' is probably a better way to put it, and I'm not sure that's quite accurate. And, yet.
So, should you go and see it? I'm going to say that you should if you have some time to spare and want to be whisked away to a point in time that was profoundly interesting for myriad reasons. If you want to watch a fabulous-looking film with lovely hair and suits, see it. If you want to be entertained on a level that is purely humorous, see it. And if you want to get in touch with the Marilyn Monroe we all wish we could have met, then this is absolutely the movie for you.
Happy viewing.