My Week With Marilyn (2011)

I'll be quick and clear about "My Week With Marilyn." It's the kind of movie you go to if you appreciate rich and layered acting performances. If that's what you're looking for, bingo.

Michelle Williams, in particular, does more than just study and deliver a caricature of the late, great Marilyn Monroe. She nails the changes between the public and private Marilyns. She hints at her infamous insecurities and public presentations. The sheer fact that, in theory, Williams doesn't look that much like Monroe makes her performance that much more revelatory. Here, she's Marilyn's spitting image. It's one of the performances of the year.

Plotwise, not much of anything really happens in "My Week With Marilyn." Its title shares properties with other films such as "Snakes on a Plane" (never thought I'd make THAT comparison, did you?) in that the title basically tells the viewer everything that is going to happen. We will be spending a week with Marilyn Monroe, as did Colin Clark, a young filmlover with stars in his eyes who charmed his way onto the set of a Laurence Olivier picture as a third production assistant, which is a fancy term for the guy who gets the coffee.

Clark wrote two memoirs about his time with Monroe, and I've heard that he cashed in a little on what might have gone down between his 23-year-old self and the hottest actress in the world. As the story goes, Olivier was eager to return to greater hights as a film actor and director and thus cast Monroe to play opposite him in a film called "The Prince and the Showgirl," in spite of knowing that she had a reptuation of being next to impossible to work with.

At this time, the 30-year-old Monroe had recently married playwright Arthur Miller, and her arrival on Olivier's set is an instant circus, in no small part due to the presence of Paula Strasberg, her acting coach. It becomes clear early on that all commands given to Monroe will first go through Strasberg. That is, until she develops a sweet fondness for Clark, who is thrust into the role of go-between as Olivier attempts to maintain his composure and finish the film.

And that is the basic plot. That's it. Somewhat amusingly, however, the bulk of the film's running time does not focus on the actual narrative, but instead on those stolen moments between Clark and Monroe: a ride in a car, an intervention staged at the house Monroe is renting, an impromptu skinny dip in a secluded lake.

Williams, as I've said, brilliantly nails her performance as Monroe, and has to be a lock for a third Academy Award nomination. She is quickly growing into one of my favorite contemporary young actresses, and with this role demonstrates that even with the challenge of resembling someone so known, she is still able to infuse the character with her trademark "normalness" and depth. What Marilyn did to the libidos of men of all ages when she was on screen, Williams duplicates. As much as I felt pity for Colin because of how badly Monroe teased and flirted with him, I was left with an equal amount of jealousy. She broke his heart, but he saw her naked. He kissed those lips. He captured her attention. Amazing.

As Colin Clark, Tony Award-winning actor Eddie Redmayne is sufficiently wide-eyed and charming in a performance that will probably not garner the attention it deserves specifically because Redmayne is so perfect for it.

More likely to attract additional attention, if there is any justice, is the work of Kenneth Branagh as Sir Laurence Olivier. For years, Branagh has been one of my all-time favorite actors, though lately, he's been focusing on TV miniseries work and continues to direct (most recently, this year's film adaptation of Marvel's "Thor"). It was such a treat to see that searing, intense Branagh in a role befitting his abilities. Though far less flashy than what is required of Williams, Branagh's work here is every bit her equal.

Perhaps the real treat of "My Week With Marilyn" is that it permits us to dance for a brief amount of time with film history and its royalty. Arthur Miller appears, as does Olivier's wife, Vivian Leigh and British actress Dame Sybil Thorndike. But all of this is just fabuous window dressing for Williams as Monroe, as "My Week With Marilyn" seems to confirms the backstage antics of one of our largest personalities as being quite a challenge. Simultaneously, though, it reveals a fragile young woman who does not know where to plant her feet.

3.5 out of 4