Movie tip: "My Week with Marilyn"

Trying to play Marilyn Monroe is a thankless task. No one can approximate her supernatural amalgam of sultriness and innocence. Michelle Williams captures Monroe's child-like vulnerability but seems to be working too hard on trying to be sexy. Even so, she provides a glamorous center for this slight film about a young man's meeting with the movie star. It's all set during the shooting of "The Prince and the Showgirl," but the fireworks aren't in the romantic relationship between Monroe and the man (a go-fer for the production) but in the tense relationship between Monroe and Laurence Olivier, her co-star and director. She keeps him waiting on set, while being propped up emotionally by the Svengali-like Paula Strasberg. Then, when Monroe finally arrives for filming, she forgets her lines. The movie really pops when Williams tangles with Kenneth Branagh as the gloriously exasperated Olivier.

- KRISTINA DORSEY