The film presents the audience with a multi-faceted Monroe. She has both a sexy side and a little girl-like innocence. Uneasy in front of seniors, flattered when praised and encouraged, and worrying about gains and losses when there is hope for recognition. She is a sought-after figure. In front of fans and even in front of fans, she can put on a sexy and sultry pose at any time, and perform that Monroe who seems to be a collection of three thousand pets. But behind people, she is so lonely and helpless longing to love and be loved. Indeed, as she said in the play, behind her dazzling image, how many people really care about the Monroe who is not "Monroe".
To be honest, Michelle Williams is still quite different from Monroe in appearance. But this does not deny that she performed the charm of Monroe (at least we have seen or known Monroe). At least in my opinion, her handling of the role of Monroe in this film is no less than Aunt May's performance in "Iron Lady". However, although Williams played an iconic role like Monroe, the plot design of the movie itself was slightly thin, and the relationship between the characters was not closely integrated.
Perhaps because it was born out of Colleen's diary, the adaptor failed to further broaden his horizons. The script that is too entangled in the development of the relationship between the two makes the main line of the film's story like a remake of "Roman Holiday"/Roman Holiday (1953). It is also a story of a grass-roots man who meets a famous woman who is trying to stay away from the troubled world, and falls in love since then; and finally has to be separated from each other because of the woman's social identity. The difference is that in the film "Ro", the American journalist Joey Bradley played by Gregory Peck accidentally met the princess played by Audrey Hepburn, and got along with the princess. For a period of time, I experienced a psychological change from making windfall money to protecting the princess' privacy. The final breakup of the two also made people sigh, lamenting the social class's imprisoning of human nature and the constraints on love. And Cowling in "My Week with Monroe", in front of Monroe from beginning to end, behaved like a combination of a groupie and a savior. In addition, his wealthy family background and the film overemphasizes his infatuation with Monroe, which makes the whole film tend to develop in the direction of "Aventure of Little Boys" in the narrative arrangement. The costume assistant Lucy played by Emma Watson is a dispensable role.
If I were the writer of this film, I'd definitely cut Colleen's role drastically and try to add another woman to it. This woman is Lawrence's wife Vivien Leigh. There are only a few scenes in the film about Vivien Leigh (Julia Ormond), and there is almost no play. The role played by her is to make her aged and fading to bring out the attractiveness of Monroe, who is in her prime, to men. But those familiar with Vivien Leigh's films and star images will find that she and Monroe are strikingly similar in many ways. Although Vivien Leigh was an English actress who rose to fame in the late 1930s and Monroe was an American actress in the late 1950s, the star qualities exuded by the two share a similar complexity: wild and innocent, Charming and stubborn, independent and fragile, strong and pitiful. The two people who are beautiful and incomparable in real life have been questioned about their potential to be good actors because of their looks. In addition, both of them belong not only to the kind of women who seek love and recognition, but also have experiences of depression.
Not only that, but the years of their lives are also related to the emergence of female ideological trends. Vivien Leigh's rise to fame coincided with World War II. During that time, a large number of women began to leave their homes and join the workplace that was originally only for men. The 50 or 60 years in which Monroe was located was the peak period of the American democracy movement. Sexual liberation, rock and roll, democratic thoughts and so on all influenced the development of popular culture. And both Vivien Leigh and Monroe projected a woman's life and struggle in the society at that time. Behind their bright star life, there is not only the insistence of women's independent identity, but also the compromise to the traditional male society. The fragile Monroe does not have the shadow of Vivien Leigh when she was young; and the old Vivien Leigh does not have Monroe's fear of the years. I figured the story would be more fleshed out if the film were to explicitly and implicitly bring together the struggles of two beautiful women's lives. The title of the film can still be "My Week with Monroe", but Cowling's identity will be more of a male observer, recorder and thinker, rather than as now, as a participant in action.
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