My Week with Marylin

Michelle Williams is amazing. She embodies Marylin Monroe in this film that explores a week in the making of the movie The Prince and the Showgirl (1957), a somewhat cheesy film with Laurence Olivier and Marylin Monroe. The story is told from the perspective of a recent Oxford grad Colin Clark, played by Eddie Redmayne. He’s gaga for Marylin even though she is boozy and airy and seems barely able to feed herself, much less act much to the aggravation of her fellow actor and director Laurence Olivier played by Kenneth Branagh. Seeing Williams in this role is worth the price of admission in my opinion. My movie companions, on the other hand, found the movie a little boring and were tired of the infatuated Colin drooling every time Marylin came into the room. So there’s that perspective too.

My Week with Marylin

Michelle Williams is amazing. She embodies Marylin Monroe in this film that explores a week in the making of the movie The Prince and the Showgirl, a somewhat cheesy film with Laurence Olivier and Marylin Monroe. The story is told from the perspective of a recent Oxford grad, Colin Clark, played by Eddie Redmayne. He’s gaga for Marylin even though she is boozy and airy and seems barely able to feed herself much less act much to the aggravation of her fellow actor and director Laurence Olivier played by Kenneth Branagh. Seeing Williams in this role is worth the price of admission in my opinion. My movie companions, on the other hand, found the movie slight and were tired of the infatuated Colin drooling every time Marylin came into the room. So there’s that perspective too.

The Names of Love

I liked the concept of the film The Names of Love (the French title is Le Nom des Gens, The Name of People): a very French romantic comedy where the heroine is passionate about politics and her endeavor is to convert fascist men, or her view of a fascist man, by seducing one at a time. She even has a scrap book detailing her conversions. No Hollywood film would mix romantic comedy with a bit of fascism. Right away, though, she mistakes an old-fashioned man named Arthur Martin for a conservative – he’s actually a socialist (I don’t Hollywood even allows socialists to be in films). Anyway, a very screwball romantic comedy ensues. In some ways it is formulaic comedy but in many ways it isn’t at all. I liked it.

Beginners

I thought Beginners was going to be funny, light and bright – the interviews and promos emphasized the humor --, but in truth it is a really sad movie. I thought it was going to be primarily about the relationship between the newly out father and his son (Ewan MacGregor and Christopher Plummer) but it actually centers around the relationship between the son with a new woman (French actress Melanie Laurent) who tries to help him deal with the grief over losing his father. ( It was nice to see a film explore the grief over the death of a parent – I can’t think when I have seen an adult child mourning over a parent in a film before) The only humor in the film comes in the form of a Jack Russel Terrier the son inherits after his father’s death. Even though I am not really a dog person, I often enjoy pets in films (see Young Victoria ) Anyway the son carries on witty conversations with the dog and the dog leans in and listens intently – it’s cute. Again, this is the only light moment in the movie.

The movie is based on Mike Mills’ own story which I heard him describe in a Fresh Air interview and it is really quite fascinating. His academic father came out after the death of his mother. He tried to help his father negotiate the modern world and accept his father’s new young boyfriends. However, the story that Mike Mills told in the interview is more interesting than the story he told in the film. I think the way the film is set up which is all in flashbacks and centers more on his new relationship with a damaged woman than to me the more interesting relationship between the father and the son. Ewan MacGregor, Christopher Plummer, and Melanie Laurent are great in the main roles, but I think I still didn’t enjoy this movie very much. Maybe it is a case of Beginners not living up to my expectations.