Ryan McNeil
In the final moments of MY WEEK WITH MARILYN, the lead character watches a film in a small cinema. He sits leaned forward in his seat; arms folded over the seat in front of him, chin resting on his forearm. His expression is one of joy and awe. He is not just watching a scene so much as he is in love with the scene, and the woman in it. It’s a feeling I can half relate to. While movies come along every now and then that fill me with joy and awe, there are no stars that make me fall in love. At the risk of stating the obvious, there are no stars like Marilyn Monroe anymore.
Colin Clark (Eddie Redmayne) wants to work in the movies. He is lucky enough to have an in with Sir Laurence Olivier’s company, which he uses to talk himself into a job as Olivier’s assistant on a production, and third assistant director. The production at hand is THE PRINCE AND THE SHOWGIRL – the lightest of lighthearted comedies that Olivier (Kenneth Brannagh) intends to star in alongside American show stopper, Marilyn Monroe (Michelle Williams).
When Monroe arrives in England to shoot, she sets hearts and minds a-flutter. However, as rehearsals and production begins, it becomes quickly apparent that Working with Marilyn will be difficult. If she shows up on time, she has trouble remembering lines, staying focused, and calming her nerves. She has dedicated herself to becoming a true actress (as opposed to just a movie star), and her fascination with method acting is tripping up much of the production.
As the on-set tension rises, Marilyn curiously starts reaching out to Colin on a personal level; perhaps because she likes him, perhaps because he’s the least threatening. Whatever the reason, the two find a connection, and it seems to be turning the heads of everyone who sees them together, and having curious effects on the production.
On more than one occasions this year, movies have chosen to remind us that their place in our lives wasn’t always just flickering images on our TV while we tweet from the couch. Movies use to be a gathering of people in the dark who wanted to be told great stories. It wasn’t quite live theatre, but far greater than television. It was a way to tell great stories and fill those stories with pretty pictures and beautiful people. We can never go back there of course, but thinking about the experience from that frame of mind, it’s easy to understand the twinkle a star like Marilyn Monroe would have.
As I watched this chapter in Marilyn’s life unfold, I found myself wondering how much of what I was seeing was true. What struck me later was the way that if any such tales are to be told about this era of celebrity, such questions won’t be raised. This film illustrates a truly bygone era, where Hollywood icons carried with them great mystique. If they stood in the presence of we mere mortals, we were awestruck as we would be in the presence of Gods. No longer. The veil of mystique has been dropped once and for all, and now so many of our icons have there every quirk and habit documented for all to know. Sometimes they even save us a step and document it themselves.
Even with all that we know about Marilyn, there still remains this feeling that we didn’t know it all. How much of her starlet quality was her, and how much was an act. Speaking of the act, one has to give credit to the way she knew how to work a crowd and work a camera. At a glance, it might seem like a pin-up girl acting coy, but there’s a magnetism there that cannot be faked…and Marilyn did it so well. She might not have been able to quote Walt Whitman, but the way she was able to work the press and work the lenses is a remarkable talent that modern celebrities could probably learn a thing or two from.
What I liked a lot about MY WEEK WITH MARILYN is the way it chose to tell a particular story. So often in bio-pics, the life being summarized gets short-changed here and there, which is inevitable when you consider some of the lives being summarized. In the case of Marilyn Monroe, one could probably make a whole trilogy of films and still miss moments of importance. But by zeroing in on the making of THE PRINCE AND THE SHOWGIRL, this film is able to touch on many different facets of Marilyn’s persona and still keep the story on-point. It becomes more than just “The Marilyn Monroe Story”; instead it’s a tale that golden age of Hollywood I mentioned earlier.
Perhaps because I was enjoying the making-of tale so much, I found the gentle love between Colin and Marilyn distracting. I enjoyed their moments together, and the way that it underlined that many celebrities are still very human. As if to emphasize this point, Marilyn asks “Shall I be her?” when approaching a crowd of admirers. She’s been herself with Colin, but knows that there’s a very different expectation from her fans. However, I enjoyed their relationship more as flirtation than I did as consummation. Listening to snide comments about how there was nothing about Marilyn’s allure she wasn’t in full control of, and about how deeply Colin felt about her felt like overstatement after a while. It might be wishful thinking, but I’d rather have seen their relationship play more as strangers who connected more than would-be lovers.
I’ve said before that there are no movie stars I go to a cinema to see, but in thinking about it, I wish there were. I wish there were still giants like Sir Lawrence Olivier and goddesses like Marilyn Monroe who could constantly dazzle with aura and grace. I wish I didn’t know their every apprehension and scandal so that I could continue to believe in them, and give myself over to their magic. After all, not knowing the secret behind a magic trick is what makes it work.
A thought on your last paragraph – Edward Norton has often bemoaned the fact that there’s far too much “how it’s done” given over to audiences, that the magic of film is being stripped away because of people’s insatiable need to know. Of course, that extends to the tabloids and TMZ that seem to publish the dining habits of every A, B and occasional C-lister. Norton, Pitt, Clooney and DiCaprio are the only actors that come to mind that have a hint of that golden age panache, and even then they’re lives are still plastered on the internet for us to sink our teeth into.
The over-abundance of “how it’s done”…
I think just as much as the lust to know, there’s also an apathy that has crept in with the dawn of digital effects and digital photography. Where once we were wowed by the sight of a giant ape scaling the Empire State Building, we know shrug and think “Neat what they can do with a MacBook Pro these days”.
The funny thing is how the mindset applies retroactively. I got into a conversation with someone about the f/x in CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND because he said “you can always tell there’s a green screen”. Actually, no – there were no green screens used in CLOSE ENCOUNTERS, but given how prevelent they are I guess that’s the assumption nowadays, right?
But yeah, between knowing the stars every waking thought and the technique involved with creating the work, it’s no wonder the magic of the movies is lost these days.
Before this film, I didn’t think much of Marilyn Monroe the actress despite the great work she did in Some Like It Hot as I was aware of how difficult she was. After seeing this film, I’m thinking of maybe seeing more of her work as The Prince & the Showgirl is coming to Turner Classic Movies this month as I’m going to DVR it and check it out.
I agree that this era of celebrity culture is a very sad one. You can get famous by being on some stupid reality TV and not really do anything. Back in the day, you had to work hard to be famous. Marilyn had that charm that won people over as well as being someone who was dedicated to her craft as an actress.
This year’s best actress race is now much tougher for me to decipher because there’s 4 performances that I’ve seen so far that all deserve accolades. Michelle Williams for this film, Kirsten Dunst for Melancholia, Charlize Theron for Young Adult, and Tilda Swinton for We Need to Talk About Kevin. These are women who are willing to go out there, give it there all and give us viewers something that we might have not seen before or bring something fresh to what’s been done already. Any of these women would be deserving.
I might try to track down a good Marilyn biography after having seen this as I’m quite anxious to learn more about the icon. The film really left me wondering about her…about how much of what we saw on-screen was her, and how much was effort…likewise where her whole persona was concerned, how much was her and how much was the act.
Thanks for tipping me off about PRINCE & SHOWGIRL – I’ll definitely be recording that now too!
I am still to see this. One of our writers gave it a very average review, so I wasn’t that keen to see it. But I will definitely rent it when it comes out on Blu-Ray
Thanks for the in depth and stunning write up
The film is flawed to be sure, but there is so much to really take from it – and I imagine that it will look very handsome on blu-ray. Do track it down, there’s a lot of charm on the screen.
I am really interested in seeing this one, Michelle Williams seems the perfect person to play the role. Looks like back to back Oscars nods for her (and probably back to back losses as well).
Good review Ryan!
Interestingly, when someone suggests “An actor to play Marilyn”, Michelle Williams wasn’t who first jumped to mind. But to my untrained eye she certainly seemed to capture her essence – especially that je ne sais quoi that would make people stop and take notice. It’s been interesting to watch Williams grow as an actor these last six or seven years. She’s now become a name that will make me more interested in a film strictly because she’s in it.