Pun Salad

I had an unexpected amount of fun watching this movie about how, over a half-century ago, a glamorous, frivolous, American movie star interacted with a bunch of stuffy Brit filmmakers. It's not billed as a comedy, but I laughed out loud more than I did watching some self-proclaimed comedies.

The story is allegedly truth-based, told from the viewpoint of Colin Clark, son of Sir Kenneth. He was a gofer for the production of a 1957 movie called The Prince and the Showgirl, starring Marilyn Monroe and Sir Laurence Olivier, directed by Olivier. The production was fractious, with Olivier reportedly continually frustrated with Marilyn's tardiness and lack of discipline. Marilyn takes a shine to young Colin, and they ditch the movie-making for an idyllic week in the English countryside.

This movie does just about everything right, thanks mainly to the acting by the insanely wonderful cast. (Not much really happens in the movie, so it's really about watching the characters bounce off each other.) Both Michelle Williams (playing Marilyn) and Kenneth Branagh (playing Olivier) got Oscar nominations for their performances. There's also Judi Dench, playing actress Dame Sybil Thorndike; Hermione Granger herself, Emma Watson, playing wardrobe-worker Lucy; Dougray Scott playing Marilyn's then-husband, Arthur Miller; Julia Ormond as Olivier's then-wife, Vivien Leigh.

All these good folks make the characters in a clever script come alive. Michelle Williams, in particular, channels perfectly the combination of Marilyn's sexy charisma with her (eventually fatal) fragile insecurities and dependencies.

It's rated R, but only for a few more F-bombs than you can get away with in a PG-13. (As Marilyn puts it herself: "Oh, you have that word in England too.")