Review of My Week with Marilyn (2011) by Edith N — 22 Jun 2012

Shall I Be Her?

Perhaps if they could have just been Norma Jean and Larry, they might have connected a little better. I don't know. I'll admit that I don't know who either of those people really were, underneath Laurence Baron Olivier and Marilyn Monroe. I really believe that, had there been the opportunity, Norma Jean could have learned a lot from the former Vivian Hartley. Vivian was bipolar, and it would not surprise me to learn that Norma Jean was as well, though of course she was never diagnosed. However, it would have explained a lot about her, including her substance problems. Vivian was much smarter than Norma Jean, I think, but I think she could have given the younger woman a lot of lessons on how to survive in Hollywood despite being as [i]broken[/i] as Norma Jean was. Oh, Vivian had a happier family, and in theory she had happier relationships, but I think it would really helpful if she could have had that friend.

Colin Clark (Eddie Redmayne) is from one of those ridiculously overachieving families. Only he doesn't want to do the sort of thing his family does. He described what he ends up doing as "running away to join the circus," and it's a bit equivalent, really. He gets himself a job working for Laurence Olivier (Kenneth Branagh), who is about to make a film called [i]The Prince and the Showgirl[/i] with Marilyn Monroe (Michelle Williams). Colin gets the job of Third Assistant Director, which means "gofer." Marilyn has just married Arthur Miller (Dougray Scott). She is also starting up with Method acting, so she is being followed about by Paula Strasberg (Zoe Wanamaker). Colin starts by doing some casual flirting with Lucy (Emma Watson), who doesn't usually date third assistant directors, but she's willing to give him a chance because he seems so nice. But Colin's job quickly becomes Marilyn Wrangler, and Lucy is cast aside altogether as Colin's fascination with Marilyn deepens.

Really, I don't know who else they could have cast as Baron Larry. On the making-of featurette, Branagh says that every young actor gets compared to Olivier, and that isn't quite true. What is true is that he has been, over and over, throughout his career. Rightfully so, I'll admit; no actor of Branagh's generation has become as synonymous with the kinds of things Baron Larry did. I'm not sure how to look this up on the Academy's database, but I strongly suspect that Branagh holds the record for being nominated in the most categories, and in 1946, Baron Larry received a special award for acting/directing/producing [i]Henry V[/i]--which Branagh himself later did as well, though he didn't get an award for it. There is a slight physical resemblance between the two men, but really, that's not why they cast Branagh. I think they cast Branagh in the hopes that he would understand the character. Though to be fair, I don't know how much Olivier believed his own press.

And then, there is Michelle Williams as Marilyn. In fact, for about half the film, I think there really is Michelle Williams as Norma Jean. Oh, the diva behaviour she exhibits is part of the Marilyn persona, I think. After all, Marilyn knows they'll wait. But one of the things the film focuses on is her extraordinary vulnerability. Someone asks Colin if he's buying the "little girl lost" routine, but I don't think it was a routine. I think Norma Jean was a sad, scared woman. Yes, she was also determined to be a star and willing to do whatever it took toward that end. But I think she was hurting in a way that few people really believed. Dame Judi Dench gets a great turn as Dame Sybil Thorndike, whom Dame Judi herself knew quite well, and the thing that makes us like Dame Sybil is that she's protective of Marilyn. She and Colin seem to be the only people there capable of seeing exactly how hurt Marilyn is and interested in doing anything about it. It isn't a cry for attention; it's a cry for help.

I really do believe that one of the hardest things to do in acting is to portray someone your audience can imagine. Not merely a real person but a person in living memory. Or, in the case of several of the people here--Julia Ormond as Vivien Leigh must make that list--people who are still perfectly easy to imagine even for those of us who do not remember them as alive. Yes, Baron Larry was alive when I was born, but I remember his ex-wife better. Her face hung on my wall for some time, when I was in college. And indeed, a picture of Marilyn Monroe hung on Michelle Williams's wall. I don't think anyone saw this movie without comparing Michelle Williams and Marilyn Monroe in their heads, though fewer of us, I suspect, were comparing Kenneth Branagh and Baron Larry. No, Michelle Williams was not a perfect Marilyn Monroe. But she was a very good one, and if you could find someone with no mental image of Marilyn, I think they would be extremely pleased with this performance. It is only those of us comparing the original to the copy who have reason to be disappointed.