jfoobar

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1655420/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Week_with_Marilyn

Heck of a cast:

Emma Watson ... Lucy
Michelle Williams ... Marilyn Monroe
Dominic Cooper ... Milton Greene
Eddie Redmayne ... Colin Clark
Kenneth Branagh ... Sir Laurence Olivier
Julia Ormond ... Vivien Leigh
Judi Dench ... Dame Sybil Thorndike
Derek Jacobi ... Sir Owen Morshead
Miranda Raison ... Vanessa
Pete Noakes ... Clapper Loader
Zoe Wanamaker ... Paula Strasberg

The reason this title's existence bubbled up recently was the release of the "first look" photos of Williams as Monroe:



While it obviously has no bearing on the eventual quality of the film, I am nonetheless unimpressed with the likeness.

PopcornTreeCt

<iframe width="640" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/1-b48Aj8zkg" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>


It's at 81% on RT as of this posting. Michelle Williams definitely has the look down. She looks better than I've ever seen any actress play her. She's also getting a whole lotta Oscar buzz for her performance. Anyway, I think it looks great.

Laertes

I haven't seen it but I'm calling it, even before the nominations. She wins the Oscar for Best Actress. I've already said this to my friends too, so either I look really on the ball or I'm really embarrassed come February. Streep loses again....

Throwing Copper

Then they are gonna have to give Streep a career award at some point.

This does look good. I'd prefer Kirsten Dunst gets it over Williams for Melancholia.

Drexl

Branagh is getting some buzz too. That's an actor I'd really like to see win at some point, and this could be the year (well, technically next year).

davidh777

Thanks for starting the thread--I've seen so much publicity over this the last few months I kind of assumed we had one already. I must say I have a strong compulsion to see this movie.

Patman

"My Week with Marilyn" is a film featuring the memoirs of Colin Clark, who details the short time period in 1959 where, as a young man looking to make into the film industry in England, he somehow ended up working on the film set with Sir Laurence Olivier and Marilyn Monroe, and according to Clark's memoirs, he gets involved with Monroe for a spell.

It took a little getting used to Michelle Williams playing Marilyn Monroe, as she doesn't quite have the eyes of Monroe, but she does a credible job channelling the various facets of Monroe's personality, looks, speech patterns, and performance quality playing to the camera, all the while driving Olivier to the brink of madness due to her use of "The Method" yielding production stoppages and budget overruns, while he could easily rely on his years of theatrical training to bolster his film performances. And as the film wore on, she inhabits the role very well. Most likely Williams will get a best actress Oscar nomination for her work in this film, but I don't think she'll win.

The story itself is fairly breezy, almost fantasy-inspired, but it has enough humor and pathos to be enjoyable enough. Kenneth Branagh might also snag a best supporting actor Oscar nomination for his work, but not sure if it'll resonate with the academy.

I give it 2.75 stars, or a grade of B-.

PopcornTreeCt

I finally saw this today and was unimpressed. I don't think I had very high expectations but I just wanted more from a Marilyn movie. This one just didn't feel very epic or important in any way.

Michelle Williams was very good in it but at the same time she played Marilyn as if she had her guard up the entire time. Even in the scenes where she was at her most vulnerable you felt like at the end she was going to say "gotcha" and have a Keyser Soze moment. Instead we see Marilyn played pretty much the same as we all expect: a ditzy blonde with superficial problems.

I was disappointed. I thought she needed more layers to her character. I also don't think Michelle William's should've been nominated considering Tilda Swinton and Kirsten Dunst both put in greater performances.

inri222

Watched it yesterday and I agree with this. There was not enough substance to the character and the weak script doesn't help.

1.5/5