Oh, Marilyn

We rented My Week with Marilyn last night and.....................................(here's where I resist looking up reviews of the movie to find out if anyone agreed with me---okay, I'll write this first and do that later)...I thought it was a little boring and a little heavy-handed on playing out this male fantasy of having a super star icon focus her breathy attention on you for this sliver of time. I love Michelle Williams and she definitely had the correct facial expressions to show Marilyn's vulnerability and deep insecurity, but the movie never went beyond that--the main kid, Colin, was too young to have any real insight into her psyche, and too shallow himself to really be hurt or changed by his encounter with her.

Most of his scenes revolved around close ups of his freckled face with this mouth hanging open in awe and desire. The whole film was about these men being completely unhinged by her beauty, but somehow emerging from it better people, as if she were this living embodiment of the Virgin/Whore, sent from above to bring joy to mankind. Specifically, mankind. She didn't seem real and the movie didn't really look at how much she was being used and destroyed in the process of being seen as this unreal goddess. The movie examines at a short period of her life and doesn't go into how she later overdosed at the age of 36 (I did Google this and found all of this conspiracy theory stuff, like how possibly her death was a murder staged by the FBI because of her involvement with Kennedy).

The one saving grace is that they didn't show Michelle Williams naked, except for maybe a slight glimpse of her dimpled buttocks.

The other thing that they weirdly didn't go into was how the young kid later profited himself, but writing a book about his brief encounter with her, which was then subsequently made into the movie, which is again using her to make money. 

I'll look now to see if anyone out in review land agrees with me. But look how lovely she was.

In other news, we put this up in the living room yesterday. The clock is from West Elm and the artwork is made by Dan out of old newspaper clippings he found in his old apartment.








Comments

Anonymous said…
I agree, Amy. Though the movie did show the way people chronically underestimated her. The Olivier scenes were brilliant at exposing his narcissism and condescension towards her. She clearly stole whatever scene she was in, she was so charismatic, and so clear on who her character was.
Aimee said…
I love Michelle Williams in everything she does, especially Blue Valentine. Thanks, Eileen.

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