Williams' performance elevates 'Marilyn'
Only an actress bent on career suicide would take on the role of sex icon Marilyn Monroe.
Or an actress as supremely cool and confident as Michelle Williams.
In "My Week With Marilyn," Williams gives a captivating, fearless performance as the screen legend, effortlessly summoning forth the essence of Monroe without resorting to mere mimicry.
She's got the public Monroe down pat with the actress' wiggles, giggles and jiggles.
More important, Williams nails the sad, lonely and insecure Norma Jean behind the flirty facade.
"My Week With Marilyn" may be a routine biographical drama filtered through rose-colored camera lenses, but Williams' unfettered interpretation of Marilyn Monroe gives the movie more weight and importance than it probably deserves.
Simon Curtis' drama is based on Colin Clark's experiences with Monroe in Great Britain during 1956 when he worked as an assistant on the movie "The Prince and the Showgirl."
The legendary actor Laurence Olivier directed the movie as well as starred in it with Monroe, on her honeymoon with her new hubby, playwright Arthur Miller.
Kenneth Branagh plays Olivier with a combination of egotistic bombast and reluctant pragmatism. Dougray Scott plays Miller as a taciturn shadow and a total mismatch for Monroe.
Which brings us to the protagonist, Colin Clark, played as a wide-eyed, nice guy opportunist by Eddie Redmayne.
A resourceful lad, Clark worms his way on to Olivier's set and becomes fascinated by the enigma of his leading lady, a sizzling talent who can't remember her lines and apparently can't be bothered to show up on time to forget to deliver them.
"I wouldn't buy that little girl lost act if I were you," Olivier cautions his assistant.
But he does, of course, despite being temporarily distracted by another lowly assistant, played by "Harry Potter" star Emma Watson.
"My Week With Marilyn" could go down as a one of the most interesting coming-of-age stories ever told, if it really happened this way.
Redmayne is a real up-and-coming talent with a knack for putting his soul on display. His sense of awe and awkwardness in Monroe's presence adds just the right touch of credibility to Williams' tragically playful portrait of the then most popular woman in the world.
When you see Williams' Monroe, you think you really do understand why the troubled actress became who she was.
And you're touched with sadness for her.
"My Week With Marilyn"
★ ★ ★ ½
Starring: Eddie Redmayne, Michelle Williams, Kenneth Branagh, Judi Dench, Julia Ormond, Emma Watson
Directed by: Simon Curtis
Other: A Weinstein Company release. Rated R for language, nudity, sexual situations. 99 minutes