source: My Week with Marilyn

This film is about a young man working on the set of a film production. His life gets turned upside down for a week as he befriended Marilyn Monroe. "My Week with Marilyn" is a beautiful film. Michelle Williams truly shines with her complex portrayal of Marilyn Monroe. When Marilyn is not acting, she is so enchanting, beautiful and seductive. Every wink, every move and every word is full of grace and charm. When Marilyn is on set, she becomes another person entirely, and this is portrayed remarkably well. She becomes almost unlikable when she is in front of the camera. Eddie Redmayne is also convincing as a young man charmed by Marilyn. He appears genuine and uncalculating; encouraging Marilyn when no one around her supports her. It makes this brief relationship so beautiful.

This film is nothing special at all. Its very well cast, especially Williams, Dench and Brannagh as well as the great supporting cast. However, there is very little plot and the story is predictable in every way. Its just a very average and forgettable film.

Saw pre-release screening. Never believed that Michelle Williams was Marilyn, which was distracting, always looked like she was an actress portraying Marilyn. The subtext of a woman whose main attribute is her sexuality, who only achieves based on her attraction to men, is sublimated to endlessly dull scenes of a vapid actress trying to recite lines on a movie set, with some lackluster comic relief tacked on gratuitously. Eddie Redmayne was really good, and he should be someone to keep an eye on. But this film never seems to get going--any film based on MM's life should be sexy, shouldn't it? The end just kind of dumps onto the screen because there is no place else to go. Should have been a lot better, maybe they can tighten it up with some editing.

The music is glorious and the acting superb. I got to dislike Marilyn intensely as a nihilistic demanding , direction less, drug addicted, bottle blonde, alcoholic bimbo who loved herself more than anything else in the world. She kept people waiting and demanded to see people at whim. Quite a nauseating woman to say the least. Much sympathy felt for Colin particularly after most of his crowd had warned him against her. Kenneth Branagh delivered a classy performance and it was good to see Zoe Wanamaker in a movie - she has talent. Best Michele Williams sticks to roles like Brokeback Mountain - she does not suit a Marilyn role at all - wonderful actress though but playing a role like this can put one off her.

Of course she did great, at the first few scenes i didn't think she would do any better to cope up Monroe's imitation but she proved the fragility of her acting got me moved, it convinced me enough to have pity over that character. Eddie redmayne on the other side, he has no astonishing look and that is what he has over on his best performance especially when in the last scenes with the char lucy, the one shot after she left, he gave a gaze. there his acting just stole every other point of the movie and spot lighted himself. Bravo to the Dir.

I think the plot of "My Week with Marilyn" as such was sweet & predictable, resting largely on what some of us already know about the debacles on the set of "The Prince and the Showgirl," and there were no surprises there. The film is mainly worth seeing because of its many stars, and Dench, Wanamaker, and Jacobi are always worth watching, but what will stay with me after having seen the film is Branagh's absolutely and chillingly spot-on performance as Laurence Olivier. I don't think I've ever seen the like! There were moments - especially at the first rehearsal and later when Olivier was in costume, when I positively forgot it was Branagh. I swear. If the performance at times bordered on parody it was only because Olivier at times appeared to be parodying himself. It was a stunning performance. Branagh is a great actor.

MY WEEK WITH MARILYN (2011) ** Michelle Williams, Eddie Redmayne, Kenneth Branagh, Julia Ormond, Emma Watson, Judi Dench, Toby Jones, Dougray Scott, Zoe Wanamaker, Dominic Cooper. Wed-behind-the-ears filmmaker wannabe Brit Colin Clark finds himself learning some late-in-life lessons while working on THE PRINCE & THE SHOWGIRL and befriending Marilyn Monroe in the process. Williams gives an uncanny impersonation of the late cinematic sex icon with some lovely nuances and skin-deep neuroses * demons and is the best aspect of this otherwise dull exercise in biopics thru an observer (to with Clark's memoir adapted by Adrian Hodges and directed limply by Simon Curtis proves what a bore the story is otherwise). Branagh hams it up as the late Sir Laurence Olivier attempting in an exercise of vanity and boorishness to re-ignite his stalled acting career , in this otherwise unremarkable film.

What a film! It feels very much like a docudrama. Every right note is hit. Michelle Williams embodies Marilyn Monroe in a way we've never seen her before, with such delicate fragility that stays true to the person she was. Forget Meryl Streep's SNL impersonation on Margaret Thatcher- one can easily see how tied it was between Williams and Davis. Streep was the total safe choice. Kenneth Branaugh is an excellent Olivier, although I wanted to see more of him. Julia Ormond captured Vivien Leigh to a tee. Judi Dench was always amazing as Dame Sybil Thorndike. Emma Watson was excellent as the costume girl love interest to Eddie Redmayne, whose job was to just stand there, which is what he did. Very good film.

Storyline is weak: young man gets to know and fall in love Marilyn Monroe, but the "real" one, who's insecure and on drugs. All of that is told in a fast, efficient but superficial way, using as a backdrop the movie she did with Olivier – based on a real story, then. The movie unfortunately isn't well conceived, and not at all well directed; it is really hard to relate to any of the characters. Although it has OK to good photography and all tech aspects are well resolved, the story is heavily edited, and do not enhance the idea of a fragile person and the aura of endearment and sexiness that Monroe projected. Acting follows choosing to be very unremarkable except for Judy Dench, who really has star quality; Williams never achieves any iconic or charismatic quality (except on final credits), and doesn't understand her character at all: her Marilyn is at best dumb, and at worst childish. Overall, she lacks life force. Not worth seeing, not even on TV on a Sunday rainy afternoon.