My Week with Marilyn   Starring: Michelle Williams, Kenneth Branagh, Eddie Redmayne, Emma Watson and Judi Dench Entertainment in Video RRP: £19.99 EDV9719 Certificate: 15 Available 12 March 2012

23 year-old Colin Clark was determined to break into the film business and his first job was The Prince and The Showgirl - the film that was set to be the smash hit of the year famously uniting the biggest stars of the day, Marilyn Monroe and Sir Laurence Olivier.  On honeymoon in Britain with her new husband, Arthur Miller, Marilyn is excited about the project but quickly becomes desperate to run away from her Hollywood entourage, the pressures of work and the press who hound her. For Marilyn, Colin is a welcome antidote and he offers her everything she craves when, together, they escape the film set to get closer in an idyllic Britain...

My Week with Marilyn is the true story of a star-struck boy who falls in love with the biggest celebrity in the world, Marilyn Monroe.

The film stars Michelle Williams s Marilyn Monroe, who does an incredible job of making you believe she is an American icon. She is joined by a stellar cast including Eddie Redmayne as Colin Clark, Kenneth Branagh as Sir Laurence Olivier, Dame Judi Dench as Dame Sybil Thorndike, Julia Ormond as Vivien Leigh, Dougray Scott as Arthur Miller, Zoe Wanamaker as Paula Strasberg, Emma Watson, Dominic Cooper, Derek Jacobi, Toby Jones, Miranda Raison, Philip Jackson, Geraldine Somerville and Michael Kitchen.

It's a touching tale of one man falling in love for someone who isn't what they appear to be. We never really get to learn whether Monroe was a flake who used Clark as her plaything to amuse herself while she was away from her family and friends, or if she was a tortured soul looking to make contact with anyone who understood her. Was she manipulative and selfish, or naive and childlike? That's down to the viewer to make up their own minds, but there's no getting away from the fact that Clark falls for someone he knows, deep down, to be unobtainable.

Extras include an audio commentary with director Simon Curtis (this is particularly interesting as he's quick to point out lots of really interesting little bits of information. It was surprising to hear that the day they shot the Norman Wisdom scenes was the same day that the real Wisdom actually died); and The Untold Story of an American Icon (18 min, 19 sec very interesting behind the scenes look at the movie.)

This is a warm and touching movie that is well worthy of your time.

9

Darren Rea