For Strummergirl:
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY:
"Michelle Williams plays Monroe, and she's a wonder. Working opposite a suitably florid Kenneth Branagh as that high thespian Sir Larry, a platinum, sultry Williams knows exactly how to throw the switch that turns on MM's movie-star incandescence, then flick it off to reveal the vulnerable young woman in the dark.... The film itself -- a drama about Marilyn Monroe's 1956 sojourn in Britain -- may be slight, but Williams is a revelation. She moves effortlessly between Monroe's private fragility and bombshell public personal, and all but guarantees herself nod."
ROGER EBERT:
"The success of 'My Week With Marilyn' centers on the success of Michelle Williams in embodying the role. With the blond hair, the red lipstick and the camera angles, she looks something like Monroe, although she's more petite. What she has is the quality that was most appealing: She makes you want to hug her, not have sex with her... The movie seems to be a fairly accurate re-creation of the making of a film at Pinewood Studios at that time. It hardly matters. What happens during the famous week hardly matters. What matters is the performance by Michelle Williams. She evokes so many Marilyns, public and private, real and make-believe. We didn't know Monroe, but we believe she must have been something like his. We're probably looking at one of this year's Oscar nominees."
LEONARD MALTIN:
"For the conceit to work, we first have to buy into the idea of Michelle Williams as Marilyn. She and the filmmakers pull this off by opening their movie with a musical number. As Williams sings and dances to “Heat Wave,” we see the familiar Marilyn figure and body language and hear her whispery singing voice. Director Simon Curtis saves his first closeup till the end of the song, when we’re already on the hook, and that seals the deal. If we can believe Williams as the famous sex symbol, we can begin to accept her as the real woman off-camera. What she achieves isn’t mimicry but an absorption of the character that is both persuasive and appealing. It’s easy to see how she manipulated the people around her, whether deliberately or not, and how a wide-eyed young man like Clark (played with just the right touch of naïveté by Eddie Redmayne) would become smitten with her... Michelle Williams deserves all the accolades she’s been receiving, because without her there’s no movie. She convinces us that she is that ravishing, impossible, heartbreaking figure we’ve all read so much about... and makes us wish we could have spent a week with her as Colin Clark did."
NPR:
"But the film rests firmly on the shoulders of its central icon, and Williams, though she doesn't really resemble Monroe in either voice or visage, is pretty splendid at conjuring her. It's not an impersonation, exactly; for much of the picture, she seems more mousy Norma Jean Mortenson than sexy starlet. But when Williams turns on her inner Marilyn — surrounded by, say, the staff of a stately home she's visiting on the sly — she's a superstar, with a smile that could light up the surrounding county."
NEW YORK POST:
"Brilliantly playing doomed ’50s sex bomb Marilyn Monroe, Michelle Williams gets under the skin of the troubled yet vulnerable icon in a way no one else ever has. Her extraordinary performance in 'My Week With Marilyn' makes all of the many performers who have played Monroe previously seem like cheap imitators — and lends gravitas to a lightweight romantic fantasy that dubiously claims to be based on fact. In a tour de force, Williams subtly deploys her voice and body to effectively play three parts. In addition to a Marilyn who publicly flirts with reporters and young male fans, there’s the insecure diva who wreaks havoc on an English movie set in 1956 — enraging her haughty director and co-star, acting legend Sir Laurence Olivier (a hilarious Kenneth Branagh). Williams also toggles into the co-title role in the famously troubled movie they’re making, the period romantic farce 'The Prince and the Showgirl' (herein referred to by its working title, 'The Sleeping Prince')... 'My Week With Marilyn' seems destined for a much happier fate — very possibly including Williams going home with an Oscar for playing an actress who was never even nominated."
SALON.COM:
"Most of the chatter around 'My Week With Marilyn' will inevitably concern Michelle Williams’ magnetic Oscar-bait performance as the off-screen Monroe, and my only two words on that subject are yes and yes. (Yes, she’s wonderful and yes, she’ll probably win, although I’m still pulling for Ellen Barkin or Kirsten Dunst.)... I’m a huge admirer of Michelle Williams, but I’m used to seeing her play indie-film characters who sleep in their cars or brave the Oregon Trail. In the abstract I wouldn’t have assumed she had either the physicality or the luminosity to pull off Marilyn Monroe. But from her thoroughly delectable opening number, her performance is relaxed, natural and utterly captivating, capturing Monroe’s precise blend of innocence and eroticism. You could say that the character Williams develops is rootless and uncentered, but one suspects that was true of Marilyn in real life, vacillating between the public sex-symbol persona that threatened to swallow her and the uncertain girl from a messed-up family who was plagued by anxieties and the threat of mental illness."
USA TODAY:
"She may not be a dead ringer for Marilyn Monroe/Norma Jean Baker, but Williams embodies the legendary sex symbol in 'My Week With Marilyn.' Disappearing into the role of the troubled actress, Williams captures the star's breathy voice and distinctive mannerisms while delving a few notches deeper. Ever a chameleon, Williams conveys Monroe's vulnerability and peels back the sexpot image to reveal a woman who is alternately wistful, childlike, funny, needy and wise... Williams is bound to get an Oscar nomination, along with Kenneth Branagh, who plays Laurence Olivier."
ROLLING STONE:
"The luminous Michelle Williams goes bone-deep here. Monroe's beauty was one of a kind. No one, not even Williams, can act it. What Williams does, with fierce artistry and feeling, is illuminate Monroe's insights and insecurities about herself at the height of her fame. Her scenes with a superb Kenneth Branagh, his wit martini-dry as the thin-lipped, defensive Olivier, ignite. Less potent is Monroe's flirtation with Colin (Eddie Redmayne, solid nonetheless). It took a toll on Monroe to look effortlessly buoyant on camera. Williams lets us see why. It's a great, soulful performance. Sit back and behold."
She's also been nominated/won the following awards:
WON
- Boston Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actress
- Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress
- Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress
- Detroit Film Critics Society Award for Best Actress
- Florida Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress
- Hollywood Film Festival Award for Best Actress (also for - Meek's Cutoff and Take This Waltz)
- Las Vegas Film Critics Society Award for Best Actress
- Palm Springs International Film Festival – Desert Palm Achievement Actress Award
- Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress
- Toronto Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress
- Utah Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress
NOMINATED:
- Houston Film Critics Award for Best Actress
- New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress (runner-up)
- San Diego Film Critics Society Awards for Best Actress
- Satellite Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture Drama
- St. Louis Gateway Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress (runner-up)
PENDING:
- Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress
- Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy
- Independent Spirit Award for Best Female Lead
- London Film Critics Circle Award for Actress of the Year
- Phoenix Film Critics Society Award for Best Actress
- Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role
Salve, Regina, Mater misericordiae
Vita, dulcedo, et spes nostra
Salve, Salve Regina
Ad te clamamus exsules filii Eva
Ad te suspiramus, gementes et flentes
O clemens O pia