And capping our independent film day comes this movie that maybe isn’t so independent as it got a wide release back in December and has done decent business at the box office. Mostly because people are connecting to Michelle Williams’s excellent portrayal of Marilyn Monroe.
What Works: Michelle Williams. She’s this movie’s selling point and its saving grace as she fully gets Marilyn’s outer sex-bomb appeal and inner confusion. By the end of the movie, Marilyn is so vulnerable and screwed up, you get the sense she’s a mystery even to herself. I have to admit I’ve found Williams a bit stuck in a rut for years (as the moody introvert in films like Blue Valentine) so it’s good to see her shake it up as the vivacious Marilyn. Also, Kenneth Branagh is pretty solid as Sir Laurence Olivier…a great actor who wanted to be a bigger star than he ever would be, and perhaps Branagh himself can relate to that. It’s fun to watch Marilyn and Olivier’s acting styles clash and debate which is really the better one.
What Doesn’t Work: This movie is dull. I mean, deathly boring in certain stretches. Whenever Marilyn isn’t on screen or Sir Laurence Olivier isn’t barking profanities, this movie just lies there and I kept checking my watch.
What I Would Have Done Differently: Why focus on such a small section of Marilyn’s life? As with A Dangerous Method (a film that SHOULD have been a biography of Sigmund Freud instead of a small section of his rivalry with Carl Jung), I wondered why they didn’t just go for the whole enchilada and make a biography of Monroe…especially with such an actress like Williams more than up for the task.
Nice review.