MY WEEK WITH MARILYN
R
99 Minutes
Director: Simon Curtis
Writers: Adrian Hodges, Colin Clark
Michelle Williams, Eddie Redmayne, Kenneth Branagh
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"The world around me then was kind of grim. I had to learn to pretend in order to... |
People that are talented and good-looking aren't taken seriously, at least that's been my experience. Yes, beautiful people really do have to put forth much more effort.
A 20th century fox; at this point, she was 30 years old, married to Arthur Miller. The focus of this movie was entirely on Marilyn. This movie takes place during the filming of THE PRINCE AND THE SHOWGIRL (1957).
Inborn talent for acting, with no formal training to speak of. Next to Adolph Hitler, she is one of the most photographed people of the 20th century. An American icon, like James Dean, Judy Garland, or Ronald McDonald.
The co-star of this film, Colin Clarke (Redmayne), a 23 year-old man on his first film job; third assistant director, becomes a close confidant.
Marilyn: Who's side are you on?
Colin: Yours.
Michelle Williams makes this character her own, like Kurt Russell in TOMBSTONE. She is not the first woman to imitate Marilyn, but she is first to come this close to getting it right. After all, her story is vaguely similar, a career that peaked in the DAWSON'S CREEK era, followed by a precipitous decline in quality roles.
This movie mainly consists of serious actors; you might recognize the British actors from Masterpiece Theatre and THE KING'S SPEECH (2010). Judi Dench, plays a non-bitch, (without James Bond) she manages to pull it off.
MARILYN is not boring, admittedly, it looks that way on paper. I found the entire movie was thoroughly engaging, but I don't know why.
No father, a mentally unstable mother, not to mention, many psychiatric ailments of her own; constantly being in the public eye. Her demise was almost inevitable, dead at 36, that's a little longer than Mozart, and a little less Natalie Wood (Christopher Walken-I'm looking in your direction). Uppers, downers, and hard living: we find out that a candle in the wind burns out rather quickly
Final Verdict: 89 out of 100.
