Movie Reviews My Week With Marilyn

25 November 2011
Marilyn Monroe

Picture: Janet Valentine as MARILYN MONROE THE REEL AWARDS - A Star-Studded Show Featuring Award-Winning Impersonators held at Golden Nugget Hotel and Casino Las Vegas, Nevada...

Movie Reviews My Week With Marilyn

As they were when reviewing movies that starred Marilyn Monroe, critics betray no consensus in appraising the performance of Michelle Williams, who portrays Monroe in My Week with Marilyn . The plot of the movie doesn't matter, writes Roger Ebert in the Chicago Sun-Times . "What matters is the performance by Michelle Williams. She evokes so many Marilyns, public and private, real and make-believe. We didn't know Monroe, but we believe she must have been something like this. We're probably looking at one of this year's Oscar nominees." Indeed, any number of reviewers are predicting that Williams will receive an Oscar nomination for her portrayal. Among them is Claudia Puig who writes in USA Today that she disappears into the Monroe role. "Indeed, any number of reviewers are predicting that Williams will receive an Oscar nomination for her portrayal," she says. Rex Reed in the New York Observer calls it "incandescent." It takes a while to get used to, he concedes, since physically Williams bears little resemblance to Monroe, but, he writes, "Ms. Williams grows into the role like new skin. The illusion grows on you, like a lichen. Scene by scene, she melts into the picture. By the end, she is no longer an impostor; she's the real deal, inhabiting Marilyn's body, mind, heart and soul." Lou Lumenick in the New York Post calls her performance a "tour de force and foresees "Williams going home with an Oscar for playing an actress who was never even nominated." But as if to underline the deep divisions between critics over this movie, Kyle Smith, Lumenick's colleague at the New York Post , wrote up a separate review of the movie on his blog in which he called the movie "hokey" and Williams's performance something akin to "a nightclub impression; never for a moment did I forget that this was Williams aping Marilyn." Likewise Peter Howell in the Toronto Star concludes that Williams is unable "to summon Monroe's "sexual heat." He observes that she is "pretty but she's not sexy, making it hard to believe the astonished comments by characters in My Week with Marilyn that she's literally burning up the screen." Manohla Dargis in The New York Times is also unimpressed. "Ms. Williams tries her best, and sometimes that's almost enough. She's too thin for the role, more colorlessly complected than creamy, but she whispers and wobbles nicely," she writes.

25/11/2011


Contactmusic
Comment on this article

Tags: Marilyn Monroe - Michelle Williams - Rex Reed - Roger Ebert - The New York Times

More From Contactmusic.com

More From The Web

Editors Recommendations

Vampire Weekend's Billboard No.1 Is A Triumph For Independent Music

Indie rockers Vampire Weekend have topped the Billboard 200 chart with their latest record 'Modern Vampires of the City,'...

Vampire Weekend's Billboard No.1 Is A Triumph For Independent Music

Sweet Jesus! Jennifer Aniston Strips Down In 'We're The Millers' [Trailer]

Remember when the trailer for Horrible Bosses rolled out online? Yeah, the internet buckled under the weight...

Sweet Jesus! Jennifer Aniston Strips Down In 'We're The Millers' [Trailer]

Mick Jagger to camp at Glastonbury

Sir Mick Jagger will camp at Glastonbury. The singer is headlining with The Rolling Stones at...

Mick Jagger - Mick Jagger to camp at Glastonbury

Amanda Seyfried felt more attractive with 'huge breasts'

The 'Les Miserables' actress' figure has changed since she was a teenager and she admits being in the limelight...

Amanda Seyfried - Amanda Seyfried felt more attractive with 'huge breasts'

Laura Marling's 'Once I Was An Eagle' Soars With The Critics

Laura Marling looks to have made a stunning return with her new album Once I Was An Eagle...

Laura Marling's 'Once I Was An Eagle' Soars With The Critics

Is Paris Hilton About To Sign Up With Lil Wayne's Cash Money Crew?

Paris Hilton looks to have her career path mapped out for the next few years, as the heiress is...

Is Paris Hilton About To Sign Up With Lil Wayne's Cash Money Crew?

Helen Flanagan Bemuses Londoners With Skimpy Outfit At PETA Event [Pictures]

Helen Flanagan doesn't do things by halves does she? The 22-year-old Coronation Street actress took to Covent Garden...

Helen Flanagan Bemuses Londoners With Skimpy Outfit At PETA Event [Pictures]

The Butler - Trailer

Cecil Gains is a devoted White House butler who grew up on a simple cotton farm where he and other black workers...

The Butler Trailer


More recommendations

Comments

Marilyn Monroe Newsletter

Subscribe to this news alert service to receive news and reviews on Marilyn Monroe

Unsubscribe | Unsubscribe All