MoPoshy Absolutely brilliant

2freensel I saw this movie before reading any reviews, and I thought it was very funny. I was very surprised to see the overwhelmingly negative reviews this film received from critics.

Mabel Munoz Just intense enough to provide a much-needed diversion, just lightweight enough to make you forget about it soon after it’s over. It’s not exactly “good,” per se, but it does what it sets out to do in terms of putting us on edge, which makes it … successful?

Cissy Évelyne It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

qrpalmsprings So well written that the pace of the film draws you closer to the story!Casting and the subsequent outstanding acting that follow makes this a most charming film. BRAVO!

Spacenaz I mostly enjoyed this biopic of the production of The Prince and the Showgirl. Michelle Williams is excellent as Marilyn Monroe, and Eddie Redmayne does a decent job as the 3rd assistant director on the picture. Michelle Williams does an Oscar nominated performance as Marilyn and was wonderful. I enjoyed seeing how Marilyn might of been off camera and it was fun to see her be flirty. I also learned that her marriage to Arthur Miller was on the rocks just shortly after they were married, which makes her interest in Colin Clark more understandable. It shows how she was vulnerable and needed some comfort in a country she was not used to, during a production where she was not being treated as the star she was by Olivier.The movie is fairly slow, as many biopics are, but does well with the material. I enjoyed Michelle Williams performance mostly, and would recommend this movie to fans of Marilyn Monroe, and of bio pics. 7/10

joe-pearce-1 I read THE PRINCE, THE SHOWGIRL, AND ME by Colin Clark only two or three years back, and it was an enjoyable enough book. But I had no particular interest in seeing the film that had already been made from it. I was wrong! The movie is something of a sleeper, or, if you will, a minor delight throughout, almost totally because of the performances, but also because the film seems a bit more moving, and certainly catches Marilyn Monroe's character better than does the book. And therein the big surprise: Michelle Williams is downright wonderful as Monroe, by far the best of the various Marilyn Monroes (or pastiches of same) that we have seen over the years. Although not as astounding as the original in purely physical terms, she does look very much like her, and manages to always sound like Monroe without the constant added breathy quality that all the others overindulge themselves in. I must say right here that I have never been a big Monroe fan, for I feel she had a natural but very limited acting talent (one can hardly imagine her playing Lady Macbeth, Norma Desmond or Stella Dallas). Michelle Williams's performance as her in this film is probably ten times better than she could have done it herself. One feels and feels for this Marilyn Monroe, much more so than one ever felt for any original Monroe character (except maybe in portions of BUS STOP). Williams also doesn't sing quite as well as Marilyn could and occasionally did; Monroe's singing voice was both more musical and more sexy. A wonderful job, and I obviously must see more of Ms. Williams. Kenneth Branagh (he's the real reason I bought the film) was superb throughout as Olivier; even if he never looks anything like him, he certainly sounds like him in the amazing variety of his subtle vocal inflections (of which Olivier was the absolute master). Also, in 1956 Olivier, even with all that princely make-up, still had, at 49, the remnants of his very handsome youthful self. Branagh is a great actor, but handsome? Afraid not. Julia Ormond as Vivien Leigh did okay, but looked a bit too solidly built for Vivien, who was really a very fragile-looking and often sickly woman by this time, Judi Dench was fine as Sybil Thorndike, Eddie Redmayne perfect for the storyteller, but I just loved the severe and almost ambitiously catatonic state that Zoe Wanamaker wandered around in 90% of the time as Paula Strassberg (the nearest thing Olivier had to a Nemesis on Earth!). Wanamaker, American-born, English-raised and now back to an American accent as the Mentor from Hell, who even goes so far as to call Marilyn 'bubbala' in one scene, is someone who adds stature to any cast she appears in, but this is as unlikely a role as I have ever seen her in. Anyway, a very enjoyable and moving film on a subject I had no expectation of being moved by. Bravo! (Gratuitously added comment: More than once in this film, Marilyn is referred to as the biggest female movie star in the world. See how telling a lie over and over again can make it seem like the truth? I would suggest that box-office receipts of the 1950s would show that Elizabeth Taylor, Doris Day, possibly Susan Hayward, and most definitely of all Deborah Kerr, were all bigger stars than Marilyn, even if she might have been the most publicized Hollywood figure of that decade.)

kaaber-2 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.