My Week with Marilyn

My Week with Marilyn tells about the friendship of an Oxford-educated, 23-year-old production assistant with Marilyn Monroe (Michelle Williams) during filming of The Prince and the Showgirl in the United Kingdom in 1956. Some strong language and posterior nudity give the film an R rating, but it's worth noting because a strong performance by Williams is winning her awards.

The plot: Laurence Olivier (Kenneth Branagh) hopes to raise his star profile by directing and starring in a film with Monroe, but he becomes frustrated with her frequent tardiness. When Monroe's then-husband, Arthur Miller (Dougray Scott), leaves, she relishes the sympathetic ear and stabilizing shoulder of a polite, earnest, and infatuated production assistant.

Williams brilliantly captures the various facets of Monroe's complicated personality: a desire to be a good wife by fighting through feelings of inadequacy in relation to her brilliant husband, a love/hate relationship with the glamorous icon she has become, and an unhealthy dependence on drugs and the approval of others.