My Week with Marilyn (2011) or, The Prince, the Showgirl and Me

♥♥♥♥♥

1 Time Film Excess Nominee:


Best Actress: Michelle Williams (lost to Bérénice Bejo for The Artist)

+ Best Period Movie of the Year

Michelle Williams really looks a lot like her character on the poster for Simon Curtis' My Week with Marilyn

We follow a young, well-off movie dreamer Colin Clark, who gets a job as 3rd assistant director on Laurence Olivier's light comedy The Prince and the Showgirl (1957) and falls for the film's American star, Marilyn Monroe.

Michelle Williams (Take This Waltz (2011)) is simply wonderful as Monroe, giving a truly Oscar-worthy performance, (she was nominated, but Meryl Streep won the award as The Iron Lady.) Eddie Redmayne (The Theory of Everything (2014)) is sweet as Colin; Oscar-nominated Kenneth Branagh (Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit (2014)) is solid as Olivier, who is played as something of a cold prick here; and Judi Dench (Philomena (2013)) and Dominic Cooper (Dead Man Down (2013)) give warm supporting performances.
My Week is a very beautiful film; both the romance, Monroe's profound loneliness and unhappiness and the intimidating aspect of performing are captured well in the film, which is written by Adrian Hodges (The Go-Between (2015)), based on two books by the real Colin Clark, and directed by Londoner Simon Curtis (Born in the USA (2007)) as his first theatrical feature.
The casting of Emma Watson (The Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012)) as tiresome second banana, who doesn't exactly inspire our sympathy, is not exactly inspired, and the color use in the film, - especially in the scenes in the Prince and the Showgirl sets, - are not wild and rich enough in my opinion.
Still, these are minor detractors for a film that is both funny, sad and beautiful. - Recommended!
Curtis is currently out with his Woman in Gold (2015), in which Helen Mirren plays a Jew who lost a prestigious family painting in WWII.

Related posts:
 
2011 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III] 
2011 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2011 in films - according to Film Excess

Watch the delightful trailer for the film here

Cost: 10 mil. $
Box office: 35 mil. $
= Big hit
[My Week, a UK/US co-production, succeeded in America with a 14.5 mil. $ gross (41 % of the total gross) and 3.1 mil. £ (around 14 %) in the UK. Williams won a Golden Globe for her performance. The DVD sale opened #6 in the US, making 2.5 mil. $.]

What do you think of My Week with Marilyn?