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.
I reckon this might be my favourite effort from Michelle Williams as she plays the eponymous screen legend who arrives in the UK to play opposite Sir Laurence Olivier (Kenneth Branagh) in "The Prince and the Showgirl". Meantime, budding writer Colin Clark (Eddie Redmayne) is desparate to get into the film industry and so has been doorstepping producer Hugh Perceval (Michael Kitchen) for ages. Eventually, he gets a foot in the door the a chance introduction to Sir Larry leads to another one with Monroe and soon young Clark finds himself tasked with keeping this increasingly flaky woman on message as it's fair to say that her methods are not quite as rigorous or disciplined as those of her co-star. If you've seen the 1957 film, you'll know that it possibly isn't anyone's finest hour - except, perhaps, for Dame Sybil Thorndyke who here portrayed by Dame Judi Dench offers the American visitor some semblance of understanding and tolerance as tempers fray and the relationship between Colin and Marilyn starts to intensify. The narrative is based on Clark's two books on the subject, so it does offer us quite an authentic and sensitive insight into just how that one week padded out; how these contrasting personalities and their working practices struggled to reconcile and Williams looks entirely comfortable as the troubled actress as does the uncannily made-up Branagh as an Olivier all too used to getting his own way. Redmayne makes surprisingly little impact - perhaps because his character must remain objective as a narrator and not unsurprisingly Clark wasn't keen on embellishing his own role - intimate or not - with Monroe. Both she and Olivier are fascination creatures in cinema history and this biopic presents us with a glimpse of just how creative clashes can result in a positive spark.
