My Week with Marilyn [2011]

Frothy, lightweight dramedy barely touches upon Marilyn Monroe’s troubled, unhappy existence and the startling duality of a woman who was a sex goddess on screen and an insecure little girl behind it. By adjusting to a brief period of time (the shooting of the film The Prince and the Showgirl), My Week with Marilyn automatically limits its scope, and even though we see Marilyn struggle with the lines in her scripts and the men in her life, we miss out on other aspects of her life that could’ve been further explored. Still, this is by no means a disaster. In a period piece, attention to detail is of the utmost importance, and here, aspects like costume design and cinematography are perfectly taken care of. Michelle Williams transcends mere impersonation as she becomes Marilyn, albeit a less seductive and more naïve incarnation of the icon. Kenneth Branagh as Laurence Olivier steals every scene he’s in. This is a loving, unbiased tribute to the most famous woman in the history of cinema.