Product Details

• Actors: Michelle Williams, Emma Watson, Kenneth Branagh, Eddie Redmayne, Judi Dench
• Directors: Simon Curtis
• Format: Color, Widescreen
• Language: English
• Subtitles: English, Spanish
• Region: Region A/1 (Read more about DVD/Blu-ray formats.)
• Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
• Number of discs: 2
• Rated: R (Restricted)
• Studio: The Weinstein Company
• DVD Release Date: March 13, 2012
• Run Time: 99 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (282 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B0059XTUEK
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #20,152 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• Learn more about "My Week with Marilyn (DVD/Blu-ray Combo)" on IMDb

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Anyone doubting the layered, nuanced, and heartbreaking acting abilities of Michelle Williams will find My Week with Marilyn a tremendous revelation. And Williams fans will enjoy it even more. In My Week with Marilyn Williams takes on the formidable challenge of playing Marilyn Monroe, and does so with depth and assuredness, and without resorting to caricature. Williams's Marilyn commands the screen with pain and delicacy, and doesn't let go until the final credits. My Week with Marilyn focuses on a small time frame in Monroe's life, right after her marriage to Arthur Miller. Monroe, already "the world's most famous woman," still feels the need for validation as an actress. What better way to achieve that, she believes, than committing to costarring with Laurence Olivier in The Prince and the Showgirl, a film she firmly believed would finally cement her reputation as a serious actress. My Week with Marilyn is based on the short memoir of Colin Clark, a crew member on The Prince and the Showgirl, who quickly became the confidant of the wildly insecure Monroe and watched a train wreck of egos--mostly Olivier's and Monroe's--collide in a fiery near-disaster. Kenneth Branagh gives an uncharacteristically restrained performance as the exasperated Olivier, resentful of the "new blood" in Hollywood that the young Monroe represents, and disdainful of her cult-like devotion to Method acting. (And of Monroe's chronic tardiness, which threatens to undermine the veddy, veddy strict British work schedule.) Eddie Redmayne plays Clark with a sweet, gentle veneer, someone who grows to care genuinely about the complex Monroe. Julia Ormond is clipped and proper as Olivier's then-wife, Vivien Leigh, and Emma Watson shows a lovely gravitas as Lucy, Monroe's acting coach. But it's Williams who gives the revelatory performance, capturing with painful intensity the insecurity that begins to seep out of Monroe like a fearful sweat. "Excuse my horrible face," she blurts out, while looking nothing less than her usual radiant self. Where does this tragic insecurity come from? My Week with Marilyn doesn't attempt to answer the unanswerable, but instead shines a light on the very real woman who became lost in the giant shadow of legend. --A.T. Hurley

Product Description

During Marilyn Monroe’s (Oscar® Nominee Michelle Williams) first trip to London to film “The Prince and the Showgirl,” with Sir Laurence Olivier (Oscar® Nominee Kenneth Branagh), she befriends Colin Clark (Eddie Redmayne), an ambitious 23 year-old production assistant on the set. As their relationship progresses Colin’s focus shifts from making his way in the film business to rescuing her from the pressures of celebrity life. When Monroe’s new husband, playwright Arthur Miller, makes a brief trip to Paris, Clark takes the opportunity to introduce her to the world outside of Hollywood fame. Based on the true story by Colin Clark, this memoir describes a magical week in which Monroe opens herself up to a stranger and finds in him a confidant and an ally.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

83 of 94 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Williams' Empathetic Take on Marilyn Trumps the Evocative Film's More Superficial Elements November 24, 2011

By Ed Uyeshima HALL OF FAMETOP 1000 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:DVD

The real Marilyn Monroe was an inch and a half taller than Michelle Williams, a significant difference when one considers that there is no way Williams could have replicated the voluptuous physicality of Monroe's presence. Yet, the young actress does something quite unexpected in capturing the essence of Monroe's wounded psyche for all its frailties and doing a convincing job of conveying the public Marilyn for all her breathy sensuality in this modest 2011 showbiz tale. Directed by British TV veteran Simon Curtis and written by Adrian Hodges, the film depicts a minor piece of motion picture lore based on the memoirs of Colin Clark, who was a lowly "third assistant director" during the production of the Ruritanian romance, The Prince and the Showgirl. The mostly forgotten 1957 movie marked Monroe's attempt at being taken seriously as an actress in a well-publicized collaboration with Sir Laurence Olivier just after she married playwright Arthur Miller.

The story really begins with Monroe's arrival in London to start filming. Fully devoted to Lee Strasberg's school of Method acting, she constantly searches for her character's motivation even within the context of a soufflé-light drawing room comedy. With sychophantic acting coach Paula Strasberg constantly by her side, she is chronically tardy on the set keeping her distinguished British company of thespians waiting for hours. Monroe's already renowned insecurities become heightened by Olivier's abrasive impatience as not only her co-star but her director. As a witness to her undeniable aura, the young Colin becomes smitten as he is assigned to be her protector when she begins to bond with him after Miller returns to New York.... This leads to a getaway visiting Windsor Castle and Eton College before a comparatively more confident Monroe returns to the set. The film is bookended by Williams' fearlessly entertaining takes on the Monroe classics, Irving Berlin's "Heat Wave" and Harold Arlen's "That Old Black Magic" (although completely out of their original context).

Williams tackles the impossible with her empathetic performance as Monroe, and she manages it with aplomb without resorting to outright impersonation. One deliberate exception is the enchanting little dance she does as her character in the movie within the movie - she mimics Monroe perfectly in those few moments. Eddie Redmayne plays the callow Colin to the best of the screenplay's workmanlike limitations since the only hint of complexity is breaking the heart of the young costumer played in a fetching manner by an underused Emma Watson. As Olivier, Kenneth Branagh captures the ego-driven bluster and measured speech cadence of the legendary actor, but he is also underserved by Hodges' script. Judi Dench again steals her scenes as a fellow scene-stealer, Dame Sybil Thorndike. Barely making a ripple in the story are Julia Ormond as Olivier's then-wife, Vivien Leigh, with just a hint given of her descent into madness, and Dougray Scott as a taciturn Miller. For all its flaws, the film is worth seeing for Williams' mesmerizing work, for example, the scene where she romps through the English countryside conveying Monroe's sense of freedom in a way that recalls a similarly poignant scene in The Misfits. Read more ›

23 of 27 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars 'A' for effort, but decidedly lackluster March 30, 2012

By Deanna in Cali

Format:Amazon Instant Video

First off, I tip my hat to Michelle Williams. She gave a valiant effort in trying to pull off an icon, but she only got it 50% right. What she DID nail was Marilyn's emotions: vulnerablility, insecurity, brokeness, and need to be loved. She painted a beautiful picture of wounded woman. Where she missed the mark big-time was in not nailing the charisma, sex appeal, bombshell MOVIE STAR quality that men were captivated by and women wanted to attain. Sorry, but Ms. Wiliams, as good of an actress as she is, simply lacks the glamour, punch and va-va-voom flair of an old Hollywood starlet. This was like casting Anne Hathaway to play Elizabeth Taylor - just wouldn't work. When playing someone famous, simply being a good actor won't do - you have to have at least *some* of the essence of the person being emulated. Marilyn was lost in her internal drama a lot of the time, but she knew how turn it on and sell the showgirl image for the cameras. Williams seemed to just be growing through the motions and looked painfully uncomfortable in any scene where Marilyn had to be "on". You get the sense that she's a painfully shy/quiet person and couldn't turn up the personality enough notches to be believable as a 50's movie star. This is where finding an actress who had a background in musical theater would have made a world of difference. [No one knows how to "sell it" better than a Broadway actress!].

The poor casting continued with Julia Ormond [laughably] as Vivien Leigh. Nothing, and I mean NOTHING about Ormond's looks and performance remotely resembled the icon america came to know and love as Scarlett O'Hara.

The only saving grace acting-wise is Kenneth Branaugh who nailed Sir Lawrence Oliver down to the very last crisply-accentuated syllable. Well done!... Dougray Scott was pretty good as Arthur Miller, but [sadly] was not in many scenes.

Performances aside, the movie was slow, predictable, dull and felt inauthentic. Read more ›

27 of 33 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Well done! December 10, 2011

By Robert G. Splaine Jr.

Format:DVD

An aspiring young filmmaker spent a short time in 1956 on the set of a Laurence Olivier and Marilyn Monroe film as an assistant director. He became close to Marilyn as many men had, and ended up a key figure in the production. Marilyn Monroe was notoriously difficult to work with in Hollywood and that is well-dramatized here. Michelle Williams IS Marilyn Monroe in this one and her performance highlights a realistic look at the difficulties that Marilyn had with trying to be a serious Hollywood actress while dealing with her insecurities and a prescription drug habit. This film was a pleasant surprise and another terrific movie to see during the holiday season.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars "First love is such sweet despair' March 15, 2012

By Grady Harp HALL OF FAMETOP 50 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Amazon Instant Video

Marilyn Monroe remains one of the most famous creations of Hollywood for the last century. In many ways she satisfied the needs of Everyman: she came form a abusive and loveless childhood, entered the realm of celluloid because of an incandescent beauty of body and face, she captured the hearts of everyone who flocked to her movies, she became the Queen of the World, and yet she was likely as fragile and insecure little porcelain doll as ever existed. MY WEEK WITH MARILYN is apparently a true story written by Colin Clark based on his diaries `My Week With Marilyn' and `The Prince, the Showgirl and Me' and in Adrian Hodges adaptation for the screen all of the above mentioned qualities of the public and private Marilyn Monroe are condensed in a 90-minute film. On many levels it works despite the rather choppy manner in which it is presented by director Simon Curtis.

1955 and Sir Laurence Olivier (Kenneth Branagh) is moving form the theater to make a movie in London. Young Colin Clark (Eddie Redmayne), a lad form a wealthy family who is obsessed with being in the film business, wants to be involved and he navigates himself a job on the set. When film star Marilyn Monroe (Michelle Williams) arrives for the start of shooting, all of London is excited to see the blonde bombshell, while Olivier attempts to struggle to meet her many demands and acting ineptness, and Colin is intrigued by her. Colin's intrigue is met when Marilyn invites him into her inner world where she struggles with her fame, her beauty and her desire to be a great actress. It is this week of extreme fragility in Monroe's life where we discover more about Marilyn's psyche than we ever thought possible....

Populating the making of the film are Olivier's wife Vivien Leigh (Julia Ormond), Dame Sybil Thorndike (Judi Dench) who bolsters Marilyn's ego, Marilyn's current husband playwright Arthur Miller (Dougray Scott), Marilyn's acting coach and mentor Paula Strasberg (Zoë Wanamaker), Marilyn's contingent of American movie moguls Milton Green (Dominic Cooper) and Arthur Jacobs (Toby Jones) as well as Colin's relative Sir Owen Morshead (Derek Jacobi) and Colin's would-be girlfriend Lucy (Emma Watson) along with a massive group of supporting actors in small roles. Michelle Williams and the makeup and costume department seem less interested in re-creating a Monroe droid, instead allowing Williams to enter the persona of Monroe - a wise decision and Williams accomplishes the impossible task of making us see Marilyn Monroe as a person. The remainder of the cast is quite fine as one would expect with a group of actors of this caliber. One can wonder why the many roles of Americans were cast with British actors, but that is a quibble. Though Williams has a lovely little voice in her many singing moments she does not resemble then inimitable Monroe sound and quirky vibrato - but that is in keeping with creating the spirit of Monroe and not imitating or mimicking the inimitable. Alexandre Desplat once again provides a perfect music score for the film. In the end this is a satisfying if not overwhelming memoir of the one and only Marilyn Monroe. It works, thanks in large part to Michelle Williams. Grady Harp, March 12 Read more ›