Inspired by the love and attraction between Laurence Oliver and Marline Monoro, who during filming the Prince and the show girl fall for each other, the thing that leads his employee Collin Clark records these moments.
That's all familiar lore but, to his credit, director Simon Curtis lays out these separate ambitions and conflicting tensions with breezy dispatch in the early frames.
Curtis occasionally takes his characters out of Pinewood, but they're never really set free, either in physical or emotional terms.
Truthdig
February 24, 2016
It would be easy to overpraise this very slight little picture. But its heart is in the right place. Marilyn was now and then, here and there, kind of fun to be with.
[Williams] floats through the movie, perfectly capturing Monroe's way of rhythmically whispering through a song, looking softly frightened when uncertain, and not strolling so much as delicately oozing across the floor.
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
November 25, 2011
Williams is a more three-dimensional Monroe than the love goddess herself. The performance is both an eerie imitation and a touching revelation.
