Good start, but then it gets ruined

Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

a beautiful meeting. more precious than the story, the unconvincing scenes or dialogues. more important than the revelation from backstage. because it is a splendid clash between two styles. because Marylin Monroe shines and Laurence Olivier has an admirable demonstration of exploration of humor sources. because the film could be reduced at the scenes in which they are together. at a seductive duel . sure, political ironical theme, the flavor of modern fairy tale, the references to different personalities and historical situations are not easy to be ignored. but are only details. the motif is simple - Marylin Monroe has the right partner for an inspired self definition as actress. and that is the basic argument for rediscover this special comedy.

I want to clarify the fact that I avoided watching this show for years because I had Laurence Olivier up on such a pedestal (I actually thought of him as the best actor in the world for years!) I thought it must be awful. I watched this film for the first time today and it absolutely delighted me. I can understand why Sir O, would have been driven crazy by Marilyn's much over-discussed behavior during the making of this film and his direction of it. He was to the nth degree a classically trained actor. She, most definitely, was the exact opposite. That does not detract at all from a naturally born actor. Her shenanigans throughout her marriages, movie-making and personal life are documented well enough for us all to know they are probably true enough. I actually found the differences in their styles completely understandable and that they fit the differences in their particular stations "in life" totally fit their respective roles. It was quite believable and also entirely delightful. I also believe that if Sir O. were able to come back from the grave and could see his film now with a more objective eye, rather than one of mere "ownership; which I think he must have had at the time it was produced, he might even be able to see how truly wonderful it is. The interplay between the two characters seemed entirely believable, playful and at times even loving. The way she treated his son, the King, was also lovely AND loving! I found this film in it's entirety a delight and would recommend it highly for either a Laurence Olivier fan or a big Marilyn fan. In either case, they were equally talented; just in entirely different ways. She couldn't have ever done Shakespeare well, as he did. He could never have played the lead in her many successful well-known comedies. They were perfectly suited for each of these roles--him playing the part of a bombast so well, and she playing the role of a loving coquette.

A delightful confection. You know that I like singing and dancing. Marilyn does a delightful dance here, in the Regent's digs at the embassy. She sings, too. Is that her voice? I don't know. I hope so. Marilyn needed a light abdominal girdle, however. All in all, the white dress was beautiful -- but did she wear it for three days straight? Ugh.Still, she is the star. More people remember her than remember Olivier or Dame Sybil, sad to say. Marilyn is a one-name star very popular to this day, 2014. I feel, as a trained actress, that "you have to be smart to play dumb." Marilyn was the epitome of Method-smart.Olivier was a stuck-up snob. His character was that, plus one reads that as an actor opposite Marilyn plus being the director and producer Olivier is still a stuck-up snob. I remember his creepy persona in "Marathon Man," and he could be a frightening persona.The young king was a delight. Dame Sybil was awesome. The British aide was comical, yet proper when necessary. The violinist/barber was hilarious.I tried to watch this once, and thought it slow. I tried to watch it again, and actually watched the whole thing. As a history graduate, I kept noticing similarities to real-life early 20th century history. 1911 was the eve of the Titanic disaster. 1914 would bring an assassination that set off World War One (The Great War). Royal houses would crumble. Some nations would disappear forever.The Regent called Americans "dumb" or something like that. Marilyn (Elsie Marina) got incensed. She was proud to be American. She even tried to explain general elections to Olivier/Regent. You go, Marilyn. That Elsie understood the German language was a plus. When the young king spoke German on the telephone, Miss Marina figured it all out.Breathless Marilyn. Overtaking/overshadowing Olivier. Dame Sybil really loved Miss Marina, and most of the time I had no trouble understanding the speech of Dame Sybil. She came off as a little dotty, but like Marilyn she knew every word and phrase she was speaking. Alas! 10/10

When the behind-the-scene anecdotes are appreciably more stimulating than the film itself, it is not a good sign, so I may address MY WEEK WITH MARILYN (2011, 6/10) should be a better choice (for contemporary audiences), barring suckers for Ms. Monroe or Sir Olivier. How come Olivier was swept off his feet by Monroe during the shooting of this film? The ignominious scandal cast a fissure on his marriage with Vivien Leigh, which ultimately ended in 1961 and to a great extent prompted Leigh's untimely demise at the age of 54 in 1967, so the real life is far crueler than this saccharine period-romance between a regent prince from a fictitious country Carpathia and an US showgirl from the Coconut Girl Club, all happens in London during his visit for the coronation of the new British King in 1911. It is a project tailor-made for Ms. Monroe and she was in her pinnacle at then, while most certainly Sir Laurence Olivier came on board as the leading man to reprise his role from the original play (Leigh was brushed aside due to her age, so Monroe was cast instead, it was is really a man man man's world), however it is rather an odd choice for him to monopolize the director chair since it is absolutely not his wheelhouse, a romantic comedy must be a tint two-bit for his Shakespearean standard. Maybe his real intent was never on the film but the red-hot sexpot, Marilyn Monroe.Regarding the personal life, it was not a placid phase for Marilyn either (check MY WEEK WITH MARILYN for a deep look), but she definitely goes to all lengths to invigorate her character, Elsie, she is the breezy messenger, the emblem of foolproof love, with her buxom curves and half-witted ingénue persona, one might not say she is the one-of-a-kind type of genius, but certainly she is the fortuitous making of her era, an icon can not be emulated in our times. Sir Olivier, wallows in his customary tactics, being deadpan serious in a condescending form, and genteelly articulating the banal dialog as if he means it, we can endure the mincing and posturing of Monroe, but for him, it totally jars with the overall tonality and the chemistry between these two people with irreconcilable disparities never scintillates on the screen, the old- hat way of acting does double up the running-time. Anyway, there is still the bright side, Sybil Thorndike as the Queen Dowager, the mother-in-law of the Regent, controls a timely comic effort whenever she is released to preside the scenes, and those moments are golden! A fresh-faced Jeremy Spenser (as King Nicolas, the son of the Regent) is strikingly dashing in the uniform, he is the only surviving cast of the film with us now. After all its regal extravaganza, garish costumes and ornaments, the preposterous post- production and erratic editing hiccups stick out ridiculously, some chuckling could be wrung from the picture in any case.