The Details

My Week With Maryilyn

Eddie Redmayne, Michelle Williams, Kenneth Branagh

Directed by Simon Curtis

Rated R

Beyond the Weekly

Official Movie Site

IMDb: My Week With Marilyn

Rotten Tomatoes: My Week With Marilyn

Like many of the best biopics, My Week With Marilyn focuses on a short amount of time rather than trying to encompass its subject’s entire life, viewing Marilyn Monroe (Michelle Williams) through the lens of one of her many admirers, young go-getter Colin Clark (Eddie Redmayne), third assistant director on Monroe’s 1957 film The Prince and the Showgirl.

But Week isn’t able to illuminate much about Monroe’s life by spending this short time with her, and Williams’ performance, while often impressive, remains in the familiar biopic mode of rarely going beyond impersonation. Williams gets Monroe’s mannerisms down, but she always seems like she’s play-acting, and the movie’s version of Monroe is an immature, capricious diva.

Redmayne is much less captivating, and the movie unfolds in a restrained, classy style that drains much of the passion from the story. Whether or not this brief episode is emblematic of Monroe’s life, it makes for a frustrating and inadequate movie.