On Wednesday I went to the cinema to see Michelle Williams play Marilyn Monroe in the film My Week With Marilyn. First of all the film is based on the books The Prince the Showgirl and me and My Week With Marilyn, both written by the man who was the 3rd assisstant director on the film, Colin Clark. And secondly those fans of have read both books agree that Prince, Showgirl and Me was an interesting look at working with Marilyn on the set, and the 2nd MWWM is generally thought to be Colin's fantasy.
Anyway onto the movie.
Firstly I have to say after having seen so many bad depictions of Marilyn I wasn't expecting much from this, especially as it was based on the fictional romance that Colin and Marilyn had during the filming of TPATS, and perhaps because I didn't expect much from the film maybe that's why I was able to enjoy the experience.
Although, I don't agree or believe in the romance, the rest of the portrayal of Marilyn was okay. I thought Michelle Williams did as well as can be expected, as capturing Monroe's magic is nigh on impossible. I loved the scene when MM was in the bathtub and Colin walked in thought it was very reminiscent of MM in the bath tub in The Seven Year itch, as well as the pool photos by Milton Greene and the pool scene in Something's Got to Give.
The problems with the film for me were watching Michelle acting Marilyn acting Elsie Marina - although the sets and costumes were very well replicated, Michelle's Marilyn as Elsie was very stilted unlike the real Marilyn's performance. But the worse part of the film was the character assassination of the wonderful Milton H. Greene, Marilyn's friend, business partner and undoubtedly her best photographer. From what I know of Milton, he truly loved and cared about Marilyn and wanted her to be happy and come across as the best she could, the film made it look like he was nothing more than her drug pusher.
Overall the performances other than Michelle Williams, who, didn't do half bad, were pretty good, Branagh as Olivier was very good, but I would expect nothing less from him. Zoe Wannamaker as Paula Strasberg came across very well and at no point did Paula come across as the nightmare she has been made out to be, in fact she came across as genuinely loving and caring for Marilyn. Eddie Redmayne seemed suitable awed as Colin Clark and the beginning scenes of him waiting in Olivier's production office for a job were quite funny. I'm afraid Julia Ormond as Vivien Leigh didn't impress, just simply because she does not possess Leigh's presence and beauty. Judy Dench was lovely as Dame Sybil Thorndyke. But somehow all the way through the film all the cast went on about how wonderful MM was when in fact they hated working with her - perhaps in real life those people (Dame Sybil excluded) were as two faced as they appear in the film.
I took a friend who doesn't know much about Marilyn, and it's interesting to note his reaction, on leaving the cinema he felt that Marilyn came across as a diva who was very up herself and not very talented, and it left him feeling disappointed in Marilyn, and he didn't really like her or her acting, whereas to me she came across as the vulnerable, insecure person that she really was, maybe it's because he doesn't know the full story of her life and maybe this is the problem with the film. For people who don't know much about Marilyn, who haven't read about her as much as her fans, this very small slice of her life that the film is set around is taken out of context of the full story, while those of us who know her life story - all the different versions - can put the film in perspective, those who don't may well go away feeling that the Marilyn of My Week With Marilyn - is the real Marilyn.
And that is doing the true Marilyn Monroe as dis-service.
I will surprisingly give the last word to Sir Laurence Olivier:
'I was as good as I could be and Marilyn? Marilyn was wonderful!'
