My Week with Marilyn Review
Directed by Simon Curtis
Starring Michelle Williams, Eddie Redmayne, Kenneth Branagh, Judi Dench and Emma Watson
Early in the movie, the producers behind Marilyn’s film huddle up in a tiny, smoky theater as they review the shots they’ve taken. On screen, Marilyn repeats the same line over and over, goofing up the beats and messing up the words. She looks confused, almost innocent and naive. The producers shake their head. Then suddenly, magic. Marilyn, in one final take, hits that perfect spot of innocence, charming and flirtatious. Her words hang in the air like perfume and everyone in the room is silent. Finally one of them speaks up.
“Boy, when she gets it right there’s just no one else in the room you want to look at.”
This also happens to be the movie in a nutshell.
The movie starts off simply enough, sometimes to simply. It goes through the phases of introducing the lead and other characters, as everyone ramps up for the film. The problem is, everyone is trying to secure the icon herself, and the entire production awaits eagerly her arrival. In that same way, I found myself wishing the same thing. Because while the rest of the movie was fine enough, it did nothing spectacular nor exciting. The narrative was well-done enough, but nowhere near fascinating, and the pacing was as eager as our young lead, but just as clumsy.
But when Marilyn finally arrives, with that blonde hair flying the breeze, her blue eyes winking ever so subtly at you, you’re hooked. Perhaps what makes the story’s uneven plot more forgivable is that you can believe that this boy would just fall madly in love at first sight, because Michelle Williams nails it as Marilyn. She breathes her words with a slight husk, her eyes dart and flutter with just the right enough of seduction and her smile, it will make everyone melt like butter.
I’d never have pegged Michelle Williams as Marilyn, I thought she neither had the looks nor the sex appeal to pull it off. What we have here though is perhaps one of the most nuanced portrayal of the troubled icon. She has to play two characters here, Marilyn the icon, a slave to the world- addicted to her fame and to the life; and Norma Jeane, the scared troubled little girl who’s been tossed out to the wolves of hollywood; so lonely, and so desperate that people see her beyond the icon. The intelligence and depth you see in William’s eyes is surprising, but it matches perfectly with the portrayal. She plays Marilyn with incredible layers, as throughout the movie you desperately try to dig deeper into her psyche, to save her from herself. But when she switches from those incredibly sad eyes to that girl, to Marilyn, coyly posing for the cameras- you just know it’s not to be. She belongs to the world now. And for a performance like this, I won’t be surprised if Michelle Williams will get a heap-load of awards.
The others in the cast are noteworthy enough. Eddie Redmayne displays perfectly the sweet agony of a youth in love, while Kenneth Branagh just chews the scenes as legendary stage actor Sir Laurence Olivier. The problem is the rest of the cast are incredibly underused, particularly Emma Watson in her first role post-Harry Potter. Just as well though, because anytime Marilyn is not on screen, the love potion wears off and you once again start noticing the clunkiness of the movie.
That said, it does succeed in exactly what it was trying to do, and that is a look into Marilyn’s eyes. Because once everything is said and done, this movie will leave you just like our young protagonist, star-struck, love-sick and already missing those gorgeous eyes. Because without it, the rest of the movie suddenly seems bland and lifeless.
8/10
