My Week With Marilyn

10/10 E.M.
10/10 C.E.

  Just as Natalie Portman wowed us all last year with Black Swan Michelle Williams gives a pure and simply AMAZING performance as the American icon Marilyn Monroe. She doesn't simply act like the woman and show us some of her character but embodies every aspect from her own insecuries to her bigger than life persona. All of this being performed with such a fierce truthfulness to it where you don't feel for a minute as if you were watching someone act out another persons life but instead you feel that for a minute somehow Williams is able to live Monroe's life. It also helps that she seriously looks a lot like her which having watched Dawson's Creek I can say that I wouldn't normally have pinned Williams as a perfect Monroe look-alike so kudos to the make up department.

  One of the best parts of this movie is that it doesn't hinge entirely on Williams performance. I honestly would be hard pressed to find a single actor/actress in this film that didn't do a great job. Eddie Redmayne who plays the doe eyed Colin more than pulls his weight adding to the wonder that so many Americans (especially men) had for Marilyn. His character comes off as believable because Redmayne delivers it as such. This movie could have easily come apart without his character supplying the support, admiration and downright confusion when it comes down to it while trying to understand who and what Marilyn really is, yet alone what she wants. (Good luck for any man trying to figure out what any woman wants though)

  Emma Watson does do a good job playing the role of Lucy and comes off as a loveable character. This said one cannot help but notice and feel that Watson is still restrained as an actress. She shows us nothing new or different from the Potter films. The emotions she draws from remind me strongly of her performance in The Goblet of Fire where she is also in a love triangle. If you wish to argue seriously go watch the later Potter films and then watch this film you would have to be blind not to see the similarities.

  Judi Dench is as always lovely and Kenneth Branagh accurately portrays a man conflicted and plagued by a beautiful woman who is for all intents and purposes out of his reach. The dymamics between each of the characters play out beautifully never coming off as soap operaish but rather as peoples lifes being lived out in front of you which is the point of a good movie isn't it? The plot of the movie is of course complelling after all it's based on the events of a woman who kept America's rapt attention throughout her entire life. The music in the film is also of course good capturing the mood of any particular moment just right. All around if you want to see THE performance of the year by an actress and a darn good movie period go see My Week With Marilyn.