Marilyn Monroe is an icon, you can debate that if you like, you’ll be wrong but you can debate it. Set during the filming of the film “The Prince and the Showgirl” we follow a young named Colin Clark, who comes from serious money, but instead of following his family wishes, he followed a career in making movies. Soon he lands a job on the crew of the film being made by and starring Sir Laurence Olivier. It’s there he meets Marilyn Monroe and gets to see through her facade and easily falls in love with her.

Famously the filming of the movie was rather dramatic and the film focuses a lot on this. Monroe wanted to be a real actress and this clashed with what Olivier wanted at the time. My Week With Marilyn is a basic film, almost seems like it was going to be a mini-series, it sure was filmed like it. This isn’t a bad thing thought the film is a smooth ride actually. Now the making of the movie is very interesting the drama between Monroe and Olivier, who is played by the amazing Kenneth Branagh. The love story between Marilyn and Colin(Eddie Redmayne) is rather simple really, it’s hard to believe and no one will really ever know if it’s true or not. That’s not the point, the film allowed the audience to see that Marilyn Monroe was more than what we think she was, that she had problems, that fame really weighed her down.

Now of course the main reason to see this film is to see Michelle Williams performance. There are many moments in this film that you almost feel like you are watching Marilyn Monroe, what is so amazing about that is Williams doesn’t exactly look like Monroe. Monroe’s real name was Norma Jean and Williams shows us a lot of that woman. One that has a dark past and is an international sex symbol. It’s tragic really how much pressure was on this woman to be something she wasn’t. The film never gets preachy and frankly is very innocent in places, it’s hard to take it as a real story. Since it’s based off of a diary of a man, now I’m sorry but why not make up a story about a one week romantic romp with one of the most beautiful women of all time? Still fake or real the story is interesting. The behind the scenes drama of what happened on the set of “The Prince and the Showgirl” is what is really fun here. Michelle Williams hands down deserves the awards she is going to get for this movie and you might as well check it out yourself, it’s a performance that only comes around every once and a while, one I know I’ll never forget.

Rating: 8/10