My Week With Marilyn

 

We are on an incredibly good streak of good movies.  This by far was my favorite out of the three that I have discussed so far.  What an amazing movie.

The movie is based off of the book, The Prince, The Showgirl, and Me written by Colin Clark, who got to spend some time with Marilyn while they shot the film, "The Prince and the Showgirl" with Laurence Olivier.  Colin Clark is played by Eddie Redmayne and is in every scene. And why wouldn't he be?  He can only write about what he actually saw or heard and they need to keep it accurate to the book.  There aren't going to be secret conversations as those could only be fabricated and speculated to happen.  This is a true story, so they need to keep it as close as possible.

Colin Clark and Marilyn Monroe are the two most likeable characters I have seen in a movie in a very long time.  I have never been so immersed in characters before and wanting to hang on to every single word they said.  Colin's character is a young, innocent man who falls under Marilyn's spell and rightfully so.  She is a gorgeous woman whom every man is after.  What he doesn't realize is that she isn't "Marilyn Monroe" 24/7.  She has an entirely different side to her.  One that is depressed, longing for love, people to call family, and just plain drowning in her life.  He understood her.  Not her character, but her.  He made her feel safe and loved and that is why she wanted him with her at every moment.  When they are out touring the sights, they run into a bunch of fans and she says to Colin, "Shall I be her?"  Shall I be this persona everyone thinks I am?  You can tell she has fun with it when the situation calls for it, but behind closed doors you view a person who doesn't even want to get out of bed.  Someone who can't get out of bed because she is so heavily medicated.  She needs medicine to sleep, to wake up, and to function.  Or not function.  She shows so much confidence to the public while behind closed doors, you couldn't have seen someone more insecure.  About her looks, her acting, and her overall well being.  She even says to Colin, "Excuse my horrible face."  That while she didn't have make-up on, she still looked like the most gorgeous woman in the world.  She took on this role for the movie so that her work as an actress could be brought up a notch and her tardiness and the fact that she was so unsure of herself threatened the livelihood of this dream.  Eventually, the movie gets shot and she then goes on to make some of her most famous movies to date.

There are some scenes where Michelle Williams looked so much like Marilyn it gave me chills.  I didn't know who I was seeing.  She played the role absolutely perfectly and I don't think that they could have picked a better person to do it.  There were many different camera shots that showed Marilyn up close and just froze it there so we were looking just at a picture of her.  The directors wanted us to fall in love with her.  They wanted her to be frozen to us so that we would have to look at her.  Look at her charm, sophistication, and what she was to the world.  They never once froze a shot while she was laying in bed delirious.  They wanted us to see that, but they didn't want us to focus on that.  They wanted us to see a person who could charm and change who they were for the love of the people.  They wanted us to see why she was as amazing and iconic as she was. 

Colin was warned that his heart would be broken and certain enough, it was.  Marilyn was married at the time and when they were done filming, she had to go back to her life and her husband, Arthur Miller.  While Colin was sad she had to go, I don't think that his life would ever be the same and I think that he was thrilled that he was able to spend time with this woman.  Someone he understood and loved.  I think not only should Michelle Williams have deserved her nominations, but Eddie Redmayne should have received some as well for his wonderful acting of Colin.

Scott and I decided to then watch "The Prince and the Showgirl" so that we could actually see the movie that they were filming.  It was fascinating to actually see Marilyn Monroe in that role.  It was interesting to see the scenes that they said took 20 takes to do, where she showed up flawlessly in the film.  She showed up as Marilyn, the natural, confident woman.  The movie was actually pretty funny and entertaining.  Marilyn's character was hilarious.  It was neat to see the other side of it.  I would suggest watching this movie after watching "My Week With Marilyn" as it adds even more depth to just about everything.

Photo courtesy of Wikipedia.