Michelle Williams doesn't look like Marilyn Monroe, in my opinion. But she has the walk, the poses, the attitude, the voice, the hair and other things just like her. And, in "My Week With Marilyn," which opens here today, she offers a perfect re-creation in a charming, funny movie, based on a couple of Colin Clark books, themselves based on a summer job with the 1957 movie, "The Prince and the Showgirl."
Clark (the excellent Eddie Redmayne), who was 23 and had just finished college, got the job because his father, a museum director and leading member of the English intellectual community, was a friend of Sir Laurence Olivier, who was directing the movie. Clark had the title of third assistant director, which meant he was a go-fer, driver and errand boy, getting coffee for people and generally keeping out of the way. He has been a successful writer, movie and television producer and writer of "The Prince, the Showgirl and Me," and more recently, "My Week With Marilyn," adapted for the screen by Adrian Hodges, and directed by Simon Curtis.
The original movie was a mess, and a lot of its messiness shows up in the movie from the book about the making of the movie. Olivier, after directing three Shakespeare adaptations, was making his debut as a director of a comic fantasy, with a screenplay by Terence Rattigan. He also was the star, of course. Monroe took advantage of the trip to England to extend her honeymoon with Arthur Miller (Dougray Scott). She was into the Method, and even had Paula Strasberg (Zoe Wanamaker) as her acting coach. Olivier scorned Method actors, and did not hide his feelings.
An aside: Olivier and Dustin Hoffman co-starred in "Marathon Man." One morning, in preparation for a scene, Hoffman was running up and down stairs, punishing himself to near-exhaustion. Olivier was seated, calmly reading a newspaper. Hoffman, panting and sweating, stopped near Olivier, asked him just how he prepared for what would be an arduous scene.
"Nothing, dear boy," said Olivier. "When they tell you, you go up and do it. It's called acting."
Monroe was notoriously undisciplined on the set, careless, usually late, thoughtless about the effect this was having on other actors. It infuriated Olivier, and the more it infuriated Olivier, the less discipline Monroe showed. Although Monroe had a hulking bodyguard (nicely played by Philip Jackson, Clark seemed to understand her, and she liked him, seeing how love-stricken he was, and how young and cute. Williams is perfect as she plays the young man like a saxophone, or like a hungry trout.
Kenneth Branagh is glorious and dead-on as Olivier, though they do not bear much resemblance to one another. Still, he's witty and wonderful. Julia Ormond plays Olivier's wife, Vivien Leigh, who's not at all confident when Monroe is around. But Ormond wears the role like someone donning a coat and unable to find the armhole for the second sleeve, lurching around offering nothing. However, there's splendid work, as always, from Judi Dench, the only cast member to be at all pleasant to Monroe. Dench is portraying the great Dame Sybil Thorndike, who was the dowager queen in the 1957 film.
And another member of the I-Hate-Marilyn club is Emma Watson, who is in the wardrobe department of the movie and Clark's girl friend, perhaps on the rebound from Harry Potter. She resents the time Clark is spending with the American actress.
As usual in English movies, lots of fine actors show up in parts that are little more than walk-on. The English seem to love acting, and if proof is necessary, watch the great Derek Jacobi as the Windsor Court librarian. It's a minuscule part, but Jacobi does it with beautiful style. Michael Kitchen, Simon Russell Beale and Toby Jones are other first-rate actors whose presence gives the film grace and solidity.
It's an enjoyable romp, not to be taken seriously, and Clark, always the proper English gentleman, draws a veil over what might have happened — or did happen — during that magical week.
My Week With Marilyn opens today at numerous theaters
— Joe