My Week with Marilyn

My Week with Marilyn follows the story of a young man’s encounter with Marilyn Monroe as she worked on the 1957 film The Prince and the Showgirl with Sir Laurence Olivier. 

Often in films which seek to portray actual people, movies tend to overdramatize certain aspects of personalities, unfairly representing their real-life counterparts, but in My Week with Marilyn, everything is done with an extreme sense of care and respect.  While Kenneth Branagh plays an angry, conceited Laurence Olivier, the film does a wonderful job at conveying that this is only one side of his personality.  None of the real life people depicted are pigeonholed to fit one particular stereotype.  Each character is written with an unbiased hand.  Eddie Redmayne plays an innocent, wide-eyed Colin Clark who becomes sincerely smitten with the famed actress and begins to think he understands the burdens that the starlet carries and wishes to help release her from her troubles. As for Judi Dench who plays the sweet, yet authoritative Sybil Thorndike, well, Judie Dench is Judi Dench – absolutely glorious.

 As would be expected in a film about Marilyn Monroe, the woman playing the title character, Michelle Williams, is the true highlight of the picture.  Williams plays the iconic actress with an unparalleled amount of consideration.  Just as Monroe was able to capture her audiences’ affections, so does Williams in her delightfully tender characterization of the beloved starlet.  In this heartbreaking performance, we see Marilyn Monroe as perhaps only those closest to her saw her– weak and vulnerable.  However, even at her most vulnerable, Monroe still had a force that attracted people to her, men and woman alike.

As the film progresses, My Week with Marilyn sheds light on the heavy medications Monroe was often under the influence of and depicts the actress in a very frail mental state.  Despite her insecurities, though, Marilyn had a way of affecting anyone and everyone with whom she came into contact, and the film does a magnificent job of exhibiting just how her charm captivated all those around her.  While Marilyn did not seem to have control over her own life (being dragged from one set to another and being medicated for mood swings), it is more than obvious that she had many opportunities to control the lives of others.  In the case of the film, both Colin and Laurence are affected by her powerful presence. Colin realizes his love for the mesmerizing actress, only to come to the conclusion that he is not the first, nor the last who will try to come to her rescue, and Laurence learns to lament the fact that Marilyn does not have to force her acting abilities; she simply has to put herself in front of an audience, and they are dazzled by the genuine light which oozes from her very pores.

Although My Week with Marilyn certainly has its slow, almost tedious moments, especially in its build-up of introducing its main characters, the film overall is an intriguing, yet heartbreaking piece that gives the audience a small glimpse into the world of Marilyn Monroe.  It is fascinating that, years after her untimely death, the ultimate American sex symbol is still surrounded with such mystery and interest. After almost fifty years, a week with Marilyn remains as mystifying to us as the entirety of her life, yet we will forever try to understand this great figure of America’s past and how she will continue to influence its future. A-