Review of My Week With Marilyn

My week with Marilyn marks a departure for me. Not affiliated with any specific film movement such as Italian neo-realism, the film is a period piece about the dark side of Marilyn Monroe that would ultimately lead to her untimely death due to overdose.

            The film has a docu-drama quality to it. The film’s main character wrote the book on which the film is based He was a documentary filmmaker and writer which is probably why the film version has a documentary quality to it. Set in London around the high modern time of the early 1960s the film follows a young British elite as he chases his dreams of stardom. Employed by Laurence Olivier productions he develops a relationship with Marilyn. He aids her through the production of the film with Olivier. In the climax of the movie Marilyn and the young man tour around England and she leads him on enflaming his infatuation with her. In the end she finishes the movie and as foreshadowed throughout the movie moves on to her untimely death.

            The scene is set with Marilyn and the young man headed for some kind of collision. Marilyn seeks to be respected as an actress and loved by her husband Arthur Miller. She constantly has to struggle against her own perception of inferiority as an actress. She doesn’t think she’s talented enough to do the picture with Olivier, who, throughout the movie, complains about Marilyn’s tardiness and unpreparedness. Yet, by the end of the film she has convinced everyone that she has talent and is a great actress. In the final scene Olivier and the young man sit watching Marilyn perform star struck by her ability to act and mesmerize an audience.

            I thought the film touched on issues about the legacy of Marilyn; was she just a sex symbol? Did she ever gain the respect of critics as a serious actress? Did her personal life lead to addiction and overdose? Why do famous people continue to in a career that has brought them so much pain and suffering? The film portrays the dark side of Marilyn. It shows her trying to gain credibility and a “normal” way of life, something she has craved since childhood. So, I suppose, the essential question is when the young man asks her why doesn’t she give it up? Why must she continue her show business career? Marilyn doesn’t answer this question and, perhaps, we will never know the answer to why this tormented soul could not find a home, family, and the bourgeoisie life she evidently desired.

            The themes that I took away from the movie are that fame has a dark side, that being immensely famous isn’t all that great when people don’t respect your talent. Yet I find that the movie doesn’t discredit her being known as a sex symbol. It seems to conclude that Marilyn was great and is more than just an empty icon, a sex symbol. Yet it doesn’t disprove the assumption that Marilyn was no serious actress. It merely reinforces the notion that Marilyn is a sex symbol. She seduces you and then breaks your heart. She exploits your emotions with her sex appeal, then like the young man, leaves you in admiration of her beauty.

            Whatever other movies are made about Marilyn this is certainly one that provides an in depth look at what Marilyn struggled with throughout her life; loneliness, addiction, divorce, and industry exploitation.