My Week With Marilyn

Oh Marilyn, you're so crazy! ... That turned out well, right?


Nominated for:
Best Actress - Michelle Williams
Best Supporting Actor - Kenneth Branagh

Straight up, Michelle Williams is superb as Marilyn Monroe. And Dame Judi Dench is also fabulous in her tiny role.  But that's pretty much where the greatness ends. All the characters come off as cartoonish and one-dimensional (especially Kenneth Branagh as Lawrence Olivier). The film presents itself as some kind of wonderful madcap romp, but all that cheeriness undermines Michelle Williams' efforts to garner credibility and sympathy for Hollywood's most infamous sex symbol.

The film starts with a title card stating that everything in this film is TRUE, and by the end we are told just how WONDERFULLY everything turned out for all parties involved. This is beyond disturbing, given that Marilyn Monroe overdoses on barbiturates only a few years later. To boot, the main character is a wide-eyed, freckle-faced, rich-blooded mimbo who seems to have spent his entire life talking about the week he spent with Marilyn Monroe in his youth. Obsessed much?

In my book, he just another set of testicles clamouring to claim a piece of Marilyn Monroe as his own. And this movie is just another sloppy biopic looking to cash in on some greasy Oscar buzz.

Eli