My Week with Marilyn Review

Posted by Tony Farinella on 01.08.2012

Michelle Williams stars as Marilyn Monroe in the biopic, My Week with Marilyn! How does her performance hold up? Check out our full review!


Hollywood biopics are always popular around Oscar season. It’s sure-fire Oscar bait year in and year out. The old joke in Hollywood is that if you want to win an Oscar you have to play someone famous, someone with an illness, or someone that perishes. So far this year, we have seen Leonardo DiCaprio portray J. Edgar Hoover in the film J. Edgar. While his performance was fine, the make-up and the pacing of the film left a lot to be desired. Now, we have Michelle Williams as the iconic Marilyn Monroe. This time, thankfully, we have a great film and an even better performance. Michelle Williams spent months upon months doing research on Marilyn, and it shows with the final product here.

To be clear, this is not a film about her entire life and career from birth to death. This is a one week period of her life spent making the 1957 film, The Prince and the Showgirl, with the legendary actor Laurence Olivier. It is based on two books by Colin Clark. All of this took place while Marilyn was in her third marriage, this time with the playwright Arthur Miller. Because of this, it is not an extensive study on Marilyn. With that being said, it still offers incredible insight and wisdom into Marilyn and shows us a side of her that we have not seen before on the big screen, a side that we only have read about in books. This time, it’s brought to life, thanks to Michelle Williams and her epic performance.

My Week with Marilyn opens up by introducing us to Colin Clark, played by Eddie Redmayne. He leaves home to make a name for himself and prove his parents wrong. By sheer will and determination, he talks himself onto the set of the film, The Prince and the Showgirl, of course, directed by Sir Laurence Olivier (Kenneth Branagh). He’s basically a gopher, but he’s just happy to be around the film industry. Before long, he sees the inner workings of Hollywood and even meets the lovely Marilyn Monroe. Olivier has a crush on Monroe as just about every man on the planet did at the time. His wife, Vivian Leigh (Julia Ormond) is aware of this and at peace with it to some degree. She tells Clark to keep an eye on her husband, however.


Clark is all bright eyed and bushy tailed about the whole experience. He even has his eye on a wardrobe assistant played by Emma Watson. He learns that Olivier is an extreme perfectionist and is often verbally abusive and degrading to Monroe. While Monroe was never a great actress, she was a great screen presence. She had a special aura and glow about her and people were drawn to her. That’s why an actor the stature of Olivier would want to work with her in the first place. She is working with Paula Starsberg, who is shoving the method down Marilyn’s throat and almost a motherly figure to her. This drives Olivier insane as he just wants to get to work. Throughout all of this, Colin is the middle man between Olivier and Monroe. He is also drawn to Monroe, who is attracted to the kind and innocent Colin, as her husband Arthur Miller can only handle so much of her.

My Week with Marilyn is an uncompromising and brutally frank look at Marilyn Monroe. Michelle Williams is perfect as Marilyn Monroe. She exudes sexuality and the “it” factor that made Marilyn such a Hollywood icon that is still popular with young ladies today. Young women still buy her merchandise today. Much like Elvis, she is timeless and will be remembered forever. Behind her beauty, there was a woman with low self-esteem, insecurities, and a constant fear of abandonment. Williams, like any great actor, knows that it’s all about the look and the eyes. She gets the look and the eyes down. When you look into her eyes, you can see her lifelong pain of never knowing who her father was and never having a real family. When she needs to turn it on, she knows how to do that as well.

The supporting cast is also incredibly solid, especially Judi Dench, a veteran actress that is looking out for Monroe against the demanding Olivier. The scenes between Williams and Redmayne are also incredibly well-acted and breath-taking. You can sense her need and want to be loved and acknowledged. You can also sense his intense love for Monroe as he is drawn to her every move. At the end of the day though, the movie is all about Michelle Williams and her performance. It helps, though, that she has the cast around her to carry the film as well. This is a great look at old-school Hollywood and the inner workings and behind the scenes drama. If you are a big movie fan, like myself, you will enjoy this nostalgic look at what it meant to be a movie star. This is one of the top ten movies of 2011.

The 411: My Week with Marilyn is Oscar Bait, there’s no question about it, but it’s still an incredibly engaging and well-made movie. Michelle Williams tackles the tough task of portraying Marilyn Monroe and knocks it out of the park. Williams, of course, should be nominated for an Oscar, and she is my favorite to win the award. The final product is the result of her preparation and hard work. Even though our stars seem invincible, larger than life, there is always more than what we see on the surface. This film peels back that image and shatters it. This is a great movie with a great performance.

Final Score:  8.0   [ Very Good ]