| RATING: | 80% |
| FORMAT: | DVD |
In this twentieth century fairy tale, Marilyn MONROE gives the impression of being both carnally innocent and sexually attractive: A rare talent, indeed. Once you get over the sex symbol nonsense, you realize you are in the presence of one of the most gifted film comediennes of all time. Her body language and comic timing are of a very high order and the fact that she is also very pleasing to look at is really an incidental side issue that only serves to add piquancy to the entire dish. MONROE comes across as a naughty child desperately seeking an approval that is more pitiable than sexy. She presents herself by externalizing how women often feel about themselves – both attracting the male gaze while simultaneously refuting it.
The other pleasure this well acted movie affords is the fact that MONROE seems completely unfazed in the presence of a top class thespian like Laurence OLIVIER. So much so that she completely steals the show – as perhaps she knew she would – so has no real need of being scared. Your eyes are on her at all times so that OLIVIER must have simply given up any attempt to upstage her since any such effort would inevitably have been doomed to defeat. OLIVIER was never good at foreign accents and nowhere near as good at comedy as MONROE, and it shows.
Here, the old world of Shakespearean declamation confronts the new world of the Method School, in the same way that the story – itself - is about old fashioned manners and mores colliding with American brashness. The resulting culture clash is funny but does not develop as well as it could because the chemistry between the two leads is not all it could have been. Terence Rattigan’s writing manages to save the day in this obliquely political film by presenting MONROE as the most attractive Madame de Pompadour of them all.
(Interestingly, MONROE is described in the dialogue here as 'slim and pretty' when, by the contemporary (2009) standards of White culture, she would be considered obese.)
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