My Week with Marilyn 2011

Mary F. Pols, TIME Magazine: Williams locates a central truth, the contradictory allure of this utterly impossible woman - mercurial, vain, foolish, but also intelligent in some very primal way and achingly vulnerable. Read more

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: For the 99 pleasantly strained minutes of "My Week With Marilyn,'' Williams convinces us of her Marilyn Monroe. Read more

James Rocchi, MSN Movies: It's too bad that Williams didn't have a script or director that would have given the film a better chance of attaining greatness. Read more

Manohla Dargis, New York Times: Ms. Williams tries her best, and sometimes that's almost enough. Read more

Keith Uhlich, Time Out: Little more than a For Your Consideration ad stretched to feature length. Read more

Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: A dubious idea done in by Adrian Hodges's shallow script and Simon Curtis's clumsy direction. Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: Williams may not be a dead ringer for Marilyn Monroe/Norma Jean Baker but she superbly embodies the legendary sex symbol in My Week with Marilyn. Read more

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: [Williams] floats through the movie, perfectly capturing Monroe's way of rhythmically whispering through a song, looking softly frightened when uncertain, and not strolling so much as delicately oozing across the floor. Read more

Keith Phipps, AV Club: Maybe it's fitting that Williams' performance transcends the predictable film My Week With Marilyn becomes: Hers is a Marilyn seen by all, but always fading away. Read more

Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic: If "My Week with Marilyn" ultimately seems like a slight film, a barely disguised awards vehicle for Williams, that's probably because it is. But her performance is so engaging and complete, it's worth all the other shortcomings. Read more

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: Michelle Williams shoulders the daunting task of portraying the screen legend, and though she requires a body double with the appropriate curves, she gives a sweet and nicely vulnerable performance. Read more

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: First-time feature film director Simon Curtis has made a minor picture about a minor picture, major talents notwithstanding. Read more

Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: [Williams] captures not only Monroe's fragility but also the guile and gumption beneath it. What she can't capture, of course, is Monroe's aura, and without it, the performance comes across as something more than mimicry but less than incandescence. Read more

Lisa Kennedy, Denver Post: After My Week, Monroe remains an enigma. And that isn't a failing of Williams' performance but an expression of its nuance. Read more

Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: Michelle Williams plays Monroe, and she's a wonder. Read more

William Goss, Film.com: It's an easy emotional rollercoaster to put an audience through, and while Williams nails the breathy voice and flickers of doubt, her work here is never allowed to feel truly effortless. Read more

David Rooney, Hollywood Reporter: Michelle doing Marilyn is something to see, but nothing else here matches her for charm or inspiration. Read more

Betsy Sharkey, Los Angeles Times: Whatever the flaws, the truth is nothing else much matters since Williams is Marilyn, and Marilyn had a way of outshining everything around her. Read more

Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald: Williams makes Monroe simultaneously seem larger than life and heartbreakingly human. Read more

David Thomson, The New Republic: I believe the heart of the film, and the cleverest stroke of all, is Eddie Redmayne as Colin Clark, someone few of us will have heard of. Read more

David Denby, New Yorker: It's an expertly made, intentionally minor movie, though when Monroe, doping herself with everything available, lies in bed, confused and hapless, there are depressing intimations of the end to come. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: No other actress has quite understood the frustrated, maternal side of Monroe that informed so many of her performances. Or quite recaptured that absolutely luminous quality she had on film. Read more

Bob Mondello, NPR: When Williams turns on her inner Marilyn -- surrounded by, say, the staff of a stately home she's visiting on the sly -- she's a superstar, with a smile that could light up the surrounding county. Read more

Joe Neumaier, New York Daily News: She is, as portrayed by Michelle Williams, a strange and beautiful alien: Unpredictable, odd, magnetic. Read more

Lou Lumenick, New York Post: Brilliantly playing doomed '50s sex bomb Marilyn Monroe, Michelle Williams gets under the skin of the troubled yet vulnerable icon in a way no one else ever has. Read more

Rex Reed, New York Observer: Something moved me deeply watching Ms. Williams as the tragic Marilyn, illuminating the girlish joy, erotic glamour and self-destructive suffering of a public icon who was privately a bottomless pit of need. Read more

Carrie Rickey, Philadelphia Inquirer: Look at how Williams goes from unconsciously being Marilyn to consciously "acting" her. Would that the entire movie were as eloquent. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: Williams brings Marilyn to life in all her permutations: little-girl-lost Norma Jean; sexy, kittenish Marilyn Monroe; and the confused woman trapped in between. Read more

Roger Ebert, 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. Read more

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: It took a toll on Marilyn Monroe to look effortlessly buoyant on camera. Michelle Williams lets us see why. It's a great, soulful performance. Sit back and behold. Read more

Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com: I'm delighted to recommend it, as long as you know what you're in for: "The King's Speech" has the subtlety of Chekhov in comparison. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: To have Marilyn Monroe kiss you and say that she loves you (whether or not she means it) -- imagine what that would mean in a man's life, not only in 1956, but decades after that, when he's middle-aged or old. Read more

Tom Horgen, Minneapolis Star Tribune: In "My Week With Marilyn," Michelle Williams disappears so effortlessly into Monroe's translucent skin that the camera lens seems to fog up with desire. She's that good. Read more

Joe Williams, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Williams is a more three-dimensional Monroe than the love goddess herself. The performance is both an eerie imitation and a touching revelation. Read more

Robert Levin, The Atlantic: The truth, of course, is that Marilyn Monroe is what you make of her. Still, Michelle Williams offers a powerful way in. Read more

Rick Groen, Globe and Mail: That's all familiar lore but, to his credit, director Simon Curtis lays out these separate ambitions and conflicting tensions with breezy dispatch in the early frames. Read more

Alonso Duralde, TheWrap: There are any number of more interesting movies that could have been made with this material. Read more

Dave Calhoun, Time Out: It's pedestrian in most ways, but Williams - with a little help from friends in the lighting, camera, hair and make-up departments - lends it a touch of magic amid the nonsense. Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: Curtis occasionally takes his characters out of Pinewood, but they're never really set free, either in physical or emotional terms. Read more

Ronnie Scheib, Variety: To the extent that Michelle Williams' multilayered interpretation of Marilyn Monroe serves as its raison d'etre, My Week With Marilyn succeeds stunningly. Otherwise, the film flits uneasily between arch drawing-room comedy and foreshadowed tragedy. Read more

Karina Longworth, Village Voice: Shimmying stiffly in too-tight dresses, exaggerated belly padding protruding awkwardly off her modern waif frame, Williams's voice and movements reflect study but not feeling. Read more

Mark Jenkins, Washington Post: Williams's Monroe is more vital than anything else. The actress captures Monroe's range of emotions and personae, her shifts from vulnerability to brashness. Read more