My Week with Marilyn (2011)

Loved, as we expected, this memoir of then 25 year old Colin Clark's time working on the movie The Prince and the Showgirl (1957). Michelle Williams, Eddie Redmayne, and Kenneth Branagh are superb as Marilyn Monroe, Clark, and Laurence Olivier, respectively (I last mentioned Williams in Meek's Cutoff, covered Branagh in Pirate Radio, and here are my favorites of Redmayne's work: The Good Shepherd (2006), The Other Boleyn Girl (2008), and this, although I heard Savage Grace (2007) was very good). Williams, especially, is accruing awards for her performance as the moody Monroe (we noticed they padded her hips, not consistently, but didn't give her enough up top to match the voluptuous star--see these pictures 1, 2, 3, for yourself). Also noteworthy are Judi Dench as Sybil Thorndike, Zoë Wanamaker as Paula Strasberg, and Julia Ormond as Vivien Leigh. We're not quite sure why they cast Emma Watson of Harry Potter fame as Lucy; perhaps it was to bring in the younger set. She's all right but there's something odd about the way she looks and the way her part is written. Director Simon Curtis makes his feature debut after a number of TV movies and shows in the UK and Adrian Hodges (co-adapted the excellent Tom & Viv (1994), about T.S. Eliot and his wife Vivienne Haigh-Wood) does a fine job adapting Clark's memoir.

Composer Conrad Pope's (orchestrator on 101 titles, composer on 15) lush score is complemented by tracks from Chinese pianist Lang Lang, Nat King Cole, Dean Martin, and La Tropicana Orchestra, and Williams sings all of Monroe's songs in the movie. The soundtrack is great. Listen to previews on amazon, or this site in French. Also, those cars! Especially the two-tone Rolls Royce!

Here's my Marilyn Monroe story. No, I didn't meet her. In 1962, I was an awkward fifth grader in New York City. My mother was a big Marilyn fan and had a similar blonde hairstyle and va-va-voom hourglass figure in those days. One day in school, the "roving reporter" stopped me as I was rushing to a class, and asked me who would I like to be. I said, impulsively, "Marilyn Monroe!" and ran off. They published my answer with the others in the school newspaper. And then, months later (August 5, age 34), she was found dead of a drug overdose. This sensitive kid was embarrassed--I had picked the superficial addict, rather than anyone with depth or apparent intellect. Oh, well. I guess I have always liked show business.

If I hadn't begun my post about The Descendants with the word sublime, I would surely be using it here. With the added benefit of going behind the scenes of movie-making in the 1950s, the whole package is great fun. Highly recommended.