Throughout “My Week With Marilyn,” there’s an air of jaunty efficiency. It’s 1956, and on the set of the lesser romantic comedy “The Prince and the Showgirl,” gofers run errands, costumers fix ensembles, and the star and director, Laurence Olivier, hold court.
Yet when Marilyn Monroe appears, things stop. She is, as portrayed by Michelle Williams, a strange and beautiful alien: Unpredictable, odd, magnetic. She seems to have the power to freeze time and tuck it into a long velvet glove, which is where most of this languorous, lovely movie lives — right in the palm of her hand.
Olivier (a great Kenneth Branagh), isn’t comfortable there. The Shakespearean actor and filmmaker of his generation is making a shiny bauble for Monroe, who’s in England honeymooning with second husband Arthur Miller (Dougray Scott). Her company is behind “Showgirl,” which will be its sole project.
But the Hollywood bombshell is, as rumored, erratic. Unsure of herself after Miller returns to New York, Monroe needs drugs and constant reassurance to get her out of her dressing room. When she meets Colin Clark (Eddie Redmayne), a young production assistant, she chooses him to help her through the shoot. She knows he sees her the way she needs to be seen. And Olivier needs that to finish his film.