Curator Watchlist
A polished, modestly engaging biographical drama anchored by a standout Michelle Williams performance. It’s most rewarding as a star-portrait and period piece, but the framing feels conventional and a little too safe to fully capture Marilyn Monroe’s complexity.
Where to watch: Buy
Wed · 1h 39m
Director: Simon Curtis
Starring: Michelle Williams, Kenneth Branagh, Eddie Redmayne
London, 1956. Genius actor and film director Laurence Olivier is about to begin the shooting of his upcoming movie, premiered in 1957 as The Prince and the Showgirl, starring Marilyn Monroe. Young Colin Clark, who dreams on having a career in movie business, manages to get a job on the set as third assistant director.
Simon Curtis
Michelle Williams, Kenneth Branagh, Eddie Redmayne
A polished, modestly engaging biographical drama anchored by a standout Michelle Williams performance. It’s most rewarding as a star-portrait and period piece, but the framing feels conventional and a little too safe to fully capture Marilyn Monroe’s complexity.
My Week with Marilyn is the kind of biopic that lives or dies on its central performance, and Michelle Williams makes the case for watching it. She captures Marilyn’s fragility, wit, vanity, and loneliness without turning her into an imitation or a saint. The film’s period detail is elegant, and the backstage setting gives it a pleasant, lightly melancholic sheen.
What holds it back is the script’s caution. It often feels like a respectable summary of a famous week rather than a penetrating character study, and the outsider framing can make the movie feel oddly distant from the woman it’s about. Still, the emotional texture is there in flashes, especially when the film lets Marilyn’s public image and private exhaustion collide.
If you’re here for atmosphere, craft, and a star turn that dominates every scene, it delivers. If you want a more searching or daring portrait of celebrity and self-invention, it may feel frustratingly restrained.
ButtNugget (3★) · 257 likes
Friendly reminder: Michelle Williams is the best American actress working today. Nobody comes close; she is a fucking godsend to contemporary cinema and we are very lucky to have her with us, gracing the silver screen on a timely basis. With that said, I turn my thoughts to My Week with Marilyn, Simon Curtis’ prosaic yet sprightly biopic of legendary Hollywood movie star Marilyn Monroe focusing on her 1957 collaboration with Shakespearean thespian-cum-filmmaker Laurence Olivier in The Prince and the
alina 寧 (4★) · 244 likes
michelle williams' performance as marilyn utterly dominates the film, her acting's spectacular; it's done with such compassion and believably. she nails monroe's smile, walk and mannerisms, all while managing to not drift into a caricature of her. it's a multilayered performance that goes further than simply just an impersonation; there's erratic mixtures of glamour and vulnerability, she fabulously evokes both the timid woman and the outlandish celebrity construct that was marilyn monroe
Tylot Lantern (4★) · 220 likes
Marilyn Monroe in her natural habitat, the bath.
Sam (1★) · 200 likes
My Week with Marilyn? More like, My Week with Eddie Redmayne!
rach (4★) · 182 likes
can the academy please get their shit together and give michelle williams the awards she deserves
A classic Marilyn showcase that captures the constructed sparkle of stardom with far more wit and confidence.
A sharper, funnier Marilyn vehicle that balances glamour, comedy, and vulnerability with effortless timing.
The film at the center of this story, useful for seeing the real production context and the on-screen chemistry tensions.
Another essential Marilyn performance, built around the tension between iconography and private desire.
A more abrasive and expressionistic Marilyn portrait for viewers who want a riskier, more unsettling approach.
A glossy Hollywood biopic that also explores fame, control, and the machinery behind celebrity mythmaking.
A warmly stylized backstage Hollywood story with affection for performers and the chaos of making movies.
A landmark portrait of fame curdling into isolation, with a darkly glamorous view of Hollywood mythology.
A classic show-business tragedy about talent, image, and the cost of being seen.
A moody studio-era drama that captures the melancholy of old Hollywood from inside the system.
A polished biographical drama about a screen legend whose public persona and private life are in constant conflict.
A vivid, performance-led biopic that treats its subject as both icon and wounded human being.
celebrity and public image, Hollywood backstage drama, female vulnerability, performance and identity, 1950s period setting, artistic ambition, romantic melancholy, fame and isolation
biopic, period drama, Hollywood, 1950s, celebrity, backstage, performance, melancholy, romance, star vehicle