... though it should really be called:
Manic Pixie Dream Girl: THE BEGINNING
It's a perfectly watchable period drama mixed with the behind-the-scenes antics of a film production. The performances are generally good and it's handsomely shot through the direction of Simon Curtis (British TV director who is directing a feature film for the first time, I think) . A Weinstein Company release!? Check!
It's pleasant fluff.
So how is Michelle Williams as The Blonde Bombshell? Supposedly, they wanted Scarlet Johansson as Monroe first, but she declined. I have no idea if she could've pulled it off though. Sure, she's got the looks for it, but her husky voice might not have worked on a superficial level.
Williams came across shaky at first. The film opens with Colin Clark watching a musical sequence of hers in a small movie theater. When Williams has to act like Monroe, the movie star, I didn't think she was quite up to snuff. But I don't consider it to be Williams' fault in this case. After all, she's going up against commonly held assumptions of the mannerisms of a pop culture icon.
The film itself is largely about the powerful allure that Monroe had on anybody and any camera that gazed upon her. And as good an actress and an appealing on-screen presence I think Williams is, I don't think she has THAT.
Anyway, the film most definitely sides with the common 'knowledge' that Monroe's immense appeal and dysfunction were two sides of the same coin, so I think we can give Williams a pass for not being able to capture that bit of bottled lightning that was a Marilyn Monroe performance.
I was afraid that this disconnect would last for the entire film, but once we see Monroe outside of performing at Pinewood Studios, I think Williams does a great job of capturing alluring/dysfunctional aspects of Monroe. It was then that I was able to forget about what I knew about Monroe and let myself get drawn in to the performance.
Unfortunately, this film doesn't tell me anything I didn't feel I already knew about Monroe. All men want to love/fuck/protect her at first sight. All women are threatened in her presence but also want to love/fuck/protect her.
So what does this film use the Monroe character for? It's used a major element of a bland story of the coming-of-age of a young Colin Clark (Eddie Redmayne). Spending a week being in love with Marilyn Monroe ends up being a positive process of maturation for young men, apparently... hence, Magic Pixie Dream Girl: The Beginning.
All we know about the kid is that he is a bit of a black sheep in his prominent family for wanting to work in the film industry and setting out on his own to make his fortune. That's about it. Nothing noticeably wrong with Redmayne's performance, but the character is a blank slate. That goes along with the fact that it's a coming-of-age tale (nobody young is interesting!!!! heheh), but it doesn't change the fact that Colin Clark is not a very interesting character.
Through wide-eyed persistence, he manages to get work as a 3rd Assistant Director for Laurence Olivier's (Kenneth Branagh, in the film's most entertaining performance) new film, The Prince and the Showgirl (1957). There, he meets a girl in the costume department and starts seeing her.
By the way, that girl is played by Emma Watson, and I have to admit... it was VERY strange seeing her not be Hermoine Granger onscreen. She does fine with a small part, but the role doesn't have her doing anything that would distance her from that character. It doesn't matter much, since Colin dumps her to focus his attentions on tending to Monroe.
In fact, there are a lot of recognizable actors who have screentime that amount to little more than cameos.
Julia Ormond (as Vivien Leigh),
Toby Jones,
Dougray Scott (as Arthur Miller),
Derek Jacobi,
Dominic Cooper (STARK!)
and Judi Dench (as Dame Sybil Thorndike)
all show up early in the movie and pop in here and there in little amounts that are fun breaks from the somewhat bland week-long romance between Clark and Monroe.
And of course, there's Branagh as Olivier. Without a doubt, his performance was my favorite aspect of the film. I don't know Olivier's work, so there was no sense of me being distracted by wondering if I was just watching an impersonation or a true performance. But even so, the script gives Branagh moments of explosive bluster (frustration with Monroe's behavior) and sensitive contemplation (about how old he feels when he looks at her) that were my favorite scenes in the film.
I don't know whether or not I'd recommend any Chewer to see the film in theaters. It was ok, but it's fading quickly from memory.
