My Week With Marilyn

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Few celebrities have been able to rival the allure and magnetism of Hollywood's most tragic and enduring icon, Marilyn Monroe. With My Week With Marilyn, director Simon Curtis offers a fascinating dramatized glimpse during Marilyn Monroe's time shooting one of Hollywood’s most challenging film productions The Prince and The Showgirl. Based on Colin Clark’s memoir The Prince, The Showgirl, and Me, the film recounts the young man's experiences as assistant to director Lawrence Olivier, as well as the personal relationship he shared with the fragile screen icon. The youngest in an upper-class family of intellectuals, Colin (Eddie Redmayne, Glorious 39, The Other Boleyn Girl) dreams of a career in motion pictures. Landing a job on the highly-publicized film production The Prince and the Showgirl, Colin finds himself the third assistant to director Lawrence Olivier (Kenneth Branagh, The Boat That Rocked, Rabbit-Proof Fence) and confidante to troubled screen siren Marilyn Monroe (Michelle Williams, Take This Waltz, Blue Valentine). The production is riddled with tension from the start -- Olivier, a classically trained stage actor, shows little patience for Monroe's chronic tardiness, her nervous jitters, and infuriating devotion to Method acting. Anxious to be taken seriously, Monroe latches on to Colin for guidance and reassurance, and despite repeated warnings, the young man falls under her spell, bewitched as much by the sad, lost girl as by the dream goddess. Williams is luminous as the dazzling screen star, and offers a layered performance that goes beyond impersonation. Playing both the damaged, insecure woman and the sensual celebrity construct, Williams' tour-de-force turn offers a rare intimacy with one of Hollywood’s most infamous personalities. With a supporting cast of characters that includes British acting luminaries Judi Dench (Jane Eyre, Nine), Emma Watson (Harry Potter series), and Julia Ormond (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Che: Part One), My Week With Marilyn is one of the most entertaining films of the year.

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