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Jan Wahl Movie Review: 'My Week With Marilyn'

You can hear KCBS Entertainment Editor Jan Wahl's movie reviews on KCBS All News 740AM and 106.9FM Fridays at 8:53am & 4:53pm.

(KCBS) – Jan Wahl reviews "My Week With Marilyn," set in early summer of 1956, 23 year-old Colin Clark (Eddie Redmayne), just down from Oxford and determined to make his way in the film business, worked as a lowly assistant on the set of "The Prince and the Showgirl." The film that famously united Sir Laurence Olivier (Kenneth Branagh) and Marilyn Monroe (Michelle Williams), who was also on honeymoon with her new husband, the playwright Arthur Miller (Dougray Scott).

Nearly 40 years on, his diary account "The Prince, the Showgirl and Me" was published, but one week was missing and this was published some years later as "My Week with Marilyn" – this is the story of that week. When Arthur Miller leaves England, the coast is clear for Colin to introduce Marilyn to some of the pleasures of British life; an idyllic week in which he escorted a Monroe desperate to get away from her retinue of Hollywood hangers-on and the pressures of work.

MY WEEK WITH MARILYN (R)

Director Simon Curtis came up with a beautiful movie based on the memoir of Colin Clark (played by Eddie Redmayne) about Marilyn Monroe (Michelle Williams) while she was in England in 1956 filming "The Prince and the Showgirl" directed by and starring Sir Laurence Olivier (brilliantly portrayed by Kenneth Branagh). A film Monroe's film company produced. It is not one of Monroe's better films, not "Bus Stop", "Gentleman Prefer Blondes" or "How To Marry A Millionaire," any number of movies Monroe did. However, this movie is interesting because of the clash of acting styles and indeed the culture itself between Marilyn Monroe and Sir Laurence Olivier. Between Monroe's method acting and Olivier's technique acting.

You also get a great sense of Marilyn Monroe, beautifully played by Michelle Williams. But it's not really about the widely talked about performance of Williams, who may possibly receive the Oscar, but it's really about Marilyn being every woman who has been hurt, every woman who tried to lead with her sexuality. It's really, very well done. You can see the very essence of the characters. Four Big Hats for "My Week With Marilyn."


Listen To Jan Wahl's Movie Review

Watch On Video/DVD:
"Beginners", The Legacy Collection: "Kirk Douglas", "The Topp Twins: Untouchable Girls", "Misrepresentation" and "Life In A Day," "My Fair Lady" Special Edition and "Up In The Air"

See Now:
"The Descendants", "The Way", "50/50", "Margin Call" and "J. Edgar"

(Copyright 2011 by CBS San Francisco. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

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