My Week With Marilyn reviewed

Who’s in it? Michelle Williams, Emma Watson, Kenneth Branagh, Judi Dench, Dominic Cooper

The plot The movie with ‘Oscar nominations’ written all over it, sees Williams take on the unenviable task of capturing the essence of the iconic Marilyn Monroe on film.

Based on the memoir of Colin Clark (played by Eddie Redmayne), who, back in 1959 at the age of 23, served as third assistant director on the London set of Marilyn’s The Prince And The Showgirl, and found himself unwittingly pulled into Marilyn’s heady orbit.

Believing she has found a soulmate with whom to have the fun she feels is missing in her life, pretty soon the pair is off cavorting across the English countryside, whilst her director, Laurence Olivier (Branagh) cools his heels back at Pinewood Studios, and Clark’s would-be love, wardrobe assistant Lucy (Watson) is left knowing she cannot hope to compete with such vulnerable glamour.

And as filming drags on – with Dench popping up as Dame Sybil Thorndike, Julia Ormond as Vivien Leigh and Dougray Scott as Monroe’s new husband, Arthur Miller – the actress soon starts falling apart and resorting to the time-wasting tricks she became famous for.

Finding himself her only ally on set, Clark soon gets a glimpse into the dark, pill-popping, confidence-sapping, terror-filled world Marilyn inhabits, whilst being unable to reach her, knowing that he’ll only have her in his life for a short time.

Rating 4 out of 5