Review: My Week with Marilyn

Without a doubt Marilyn Monroe is one of the most iconic figures in American cinema. In fact, it's an injustice to limit the magnitude of her legend to just film. She was a star, plain and simple. Her presence would bring any man to his knees and falling in love with her wasn't even a choice, it was a certainty. To know her on that level is something very few people who are alive today can attest to, but My Week With Marilyn, based on memoirs by Colin Clark, gives us a glimpse at Marilyn the person, as well as the fragile and sensitive artist she really was. The movie opens today in Austin.

Clark was an avid film lover who came from a family of means. Despite his love of movies, he grew up working in the family business and had no business performing silly little jobs on film sets. But his tenacity and determination as a young man in 1956 landed him a job as a third assistant director on Laurence Olivier's The Prince and the Showgirl starring Marilyn Monroe. Despite his willingness to learn the craft of becoming a filmmaker, Clark was drawn to Marilyn in a way that many at that time were all too familiar with. She needed constant reassurance and praise, almost always had moments of self-doubt and couldn't be considered a reliable performer because of these issues.

But My Week with Marilyn isn't about how legendary the appeal of Marilyn Monroe was, it was about the effect she had on one man, and how her guard around him was, from his perspective, let down a bit. Michelle Williams does a great job portraying a side of Marilyn Monroe that I don't think anyone alive has ever seen. To play someone whose star power is that huge in such an intimate role takes talent and Williams really owns up to the task. It isn't enough to just look beautiful, or be able to sing and dance and talk like her, but to carry yourself with the kind of humility Marilyn had, while still being obviously aware of her star power ... and that's where the movie really steps up beyond a simple retelling of a week in someone's life. This might be the only time this side of Marilyn Monroe has ever been written and fans of hers owe it to themselves to get to know her on this level.

The rest of the cast does a great job with the film. Eddie Redmayne, who plays Colin, plays the part of the doe-eyed man stuck in Marilyn's tractor beam of beauty to perfection. His character even manages to gain the fancy of Lucy (Emma Watson) whose beauty, prevalent as it is, doesn't stand up the magnitude of the presence of Marilyn Monroe. Watson's is a bit of a throwaway part, and it would have been nice to see her in more on this film. Another part that was too small was Dame Sybil Thorndike, played by Judi Dench. The character oftentimes put in perspective the star power of Monroe and was usually a welcome source of tension relief ... and must have been as well during filming of The Prince and the Showgirl. Kenneth Branagh turned in a great performance and also showed a side to Laurence Olivier that not a lot of people may have ever been privy to. Not that it had to have been difficult, but even though his character held a lot of contempt towards Marilyn, there were times where even he fell under her spell.

My Week with Marilyn may be a small story in the grand scheme of a legend's life, but it's a look at a part of a legend that hardly anyone ever got to see. Or if they did, they never talked about it. We may never know the true accuracy of Colin's accounts as he sadly passed away in 2002, but a different look at Marilyn Monroe is a different look. She's a fascinating part of our history of celebrity worship and this perspective made for a good film, one that's certainly worth the time of any Monroe fan.