To act as if anyone on the planet is going to be able to look just like Marilyn Monroe is to invite disappointment. In My Week with Marilyn, Michelle Williams has the daunting task of portraying the sultry celebrity and sexual icon, a role that has been attempted by many others with mixed success. For Williams, it's a change of pace from the serious, heavy roles she's had lately. There's scarcely a laugh in movies like Wendy and Lucy or Blue Valentine, but the women of those movies had something in common with Monroe. They had emotional scars that ran deep, and the courage to try to fight through them in any way they knew how. The glamour of Monroe is just the glossy packaging we see on the outside, but it's what Williams discovers about who she is on the inside that will make you stand up and recognize how truly great her performance is.
To their credit, screenwriter Adrian Hodges and TV vet Simon Curtis don't waste any time introducing us to Williams' take on Monroe, with her racy rendition of Heat Wave. Monroe was such a cipher to so many people, the only thing recognizable by all was the sexuality she projected. Williams slinks and curves through the song with ease, so much so that you barely recognize that she doesn't look so much like Monroe. She has the moves and confidence down pat, which is all that really matters. It's impossible to look away from her. Like Monroe herself, Williams will have men transfixed.
Such as Colin Clark(Eddie Redmayne), whose two memoirs serve as the basis for this story. Clark, born to a well-to-do family, has a desire to be involved with the movies. Through a combination of pestering and luck, he lands a gig as 3rd assistant director on The Prince and the Showgirl, a 1957 comedy so light a gust of wind could blow it into orbit. However it was a pivotal production to some of the particulars, including director Laurence Olivier(Kenneth Branagh), who just wants to see it go off without a hitch. If he can capitalize on Monroe's popularity, and maybe even get her into his bed a few times, so much the better. Unfortunately for him, Monroe arrives on set with more than just a few issues, she has an entire subscription. She regularly shows up to work late; refuses to listen to anybody but her enabling acting coach; and causes a paparazzi firestorm that slows production to a crawl.
Fortunately she has a friend in Colin, who instantly is enraptured by her "come hither" glances and flirty giggles. So much so that he rejects the cute costume girl(a wasted Emma Watson) he's been dating. She can't possibly compete with someone like Monroe, especially when she's so good at making Colin feel like he's the only one who can pull her out of a constant state of crisis.
How much of that act was real, though? And how much of it was an act she put on to get what she wants? That's one of the few questions the film actually asks about her. For the most part, My Week with Marilyn is an extremely airy story. The on-set squabbles aren't particularly insightful, and are played mostly for laughs as Olivier breaks down over what's happening to his career. The script doesn't seem to have any concrete answers about Monroe, either, except to figure that she was a rash of contradictions. On the one hand, she's desperate to be considered a real actress, so much so she's almost ashamed to be in the presence of veteran Dame Sybil Thorndike(Judi Dench), while at the same time she's more than willing to fall back on her power over men to make life easier. Colin proves to be Monroe's confidante as her marriage to Arthur Miller(Dougray Scott) publicly falls apart.
Just as how Monroe proved to be the shining jewel of The Prince and the Showgirl, it's Williams' remarkable, multi-faceted performance that dwarfs everything else about My Week with Marilyn. The trick to playing Monroe isn't just about looking hot in a tight dress. Being seductive isn't all that hard. It was Monroe's combination of sexiness and innocence that drove men wild, and Williams has nailed that perfectly. In one scene she shares with Redmayne as their characters skinny dip in a nearby lake, she gives him a gentle kiss and reveals it was the first time she ever locked lips with a younger man. That might be true, but really it doesn't matter. It's in that moment that we get a pure glimpse at the mystery of what was Marilyn Monroe. Manipulative on the one hand, but genuinely wanting to make others happy and feel special on the other. Perhaps she behaved in such a way because nobody was ever truly able to make her feel like the most important person in the world, and the cheering fans and snapping cameras were a substitute.
If only there had been more of an effort to stake an opinion on who Marilyn Monroe truly was. The screenplay drops a lot of hints, but never lands on a clear answer. Fortunately, Williams is so good that the rest of the film being so thin is barely a concern. After watching her humanize so many troubled women over the years to tremendous effect, Williams has taken on her most difficult role yet, and somehow found a way to outshine herself.
