A Week With Marilyn - what bliss

Surprise surprise I'm a huge fan of Marilyn  Monroe and in contrast to my feelings about 'The Iron Lady' as an impersonation tour de force, I purely adored 'My Week With Marilyn'. 


The making of the movie 'The Prince and the Showgirl' is the centrepiece upon which the film weaves a rather lovely if sometimes troubled story. There are a couple of historical inaccuracies (the cliched Marilyn poses and songs which weren't exactly 'correct' at the time 'Prince' was made) and I have some quibbles about the structure of the film but it is an overall delight.


So, in light of my criticism of Meryl in my previous review why aren't I all high and mighty about Michelle Williams' Marilyn? Simply there was a large degree of acting required, interpretation of a script which was based on supposition and one person's memoirs. The off screen events depicted weren't on newsreels or widely reported verbatim so it all had to be portrayed from acting talent, dramatic interpretation.


The cast is wonderful and Michelle is luminescent as MM. She does go for the cliche version with the put and the purr a bit too often but overall it and the movie is a real treat. Kenneth Branagh as Larry Olivier is spookily accurate in looks if a bit over the top at times in vocals. Larry could be pretty fruity but I'm sure he was a little less 'up himself' when he wasn't 'on'.


I enjoyed this film very much.