Oh my, it's been a while since I've hated a movie as much as this. The fault isn't with the production which obviously had a lot of money and slick polish driving its credibility; the fault is with the director's choice to portray Marilyn, and basically every other character, as so dumb you wonder how they manage to get off an elevator without an exit sign.

The main offense is the character Marilyn. On paper, this is a coming of age film based on the memoirs of Colin Clark age 23, being seduced by the 30 year old international superstar Marilyn Monroe, but as if fearing to offend Marilyn's estate and losing the gig (estate approval is the biggest corruptor of "biopics"), the filmmakers avoid giving her character any sense of seductiveness and instead play it safe by showing her as an idiot who sleepwalks into an affair like a schoolgirl with her first crush. Note she was on her 3rd marriage at this point. Further muting the narrative, the "affair" is so obscured (they kiss, skinny dip, strip and repeatedly sleep together, but Colin is always shown getting out of bed with his clothes on!) that essentially nothing is said. And Marilyn is so dumb we figure that's just how she is with everyone.

The portrayal of Marilyn is as if the director watched her dumbest blonde role, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, and assumed that's how she was in real life.

Less braindead but equally offensive to anyone who knows reality is the portrayal of Laurence Olivier as a pompous, unhinged bumbler who's barely able to keep his production from flying off the rails. No, flying off the rails is what he does. This is another reality fail; the real Olivier may have been a lot of things, but he was always in control of his demeanor, not constantly freaking out like Christian Bale on secret video.

If this were presented as fiction, which it is, I might've been a bit forgiving. But the opening titles claim "THIS IS THEIR TRUE STORY". 🤦

And! Don't get me started on the moronic score. 5 notes played over & over, depending on the scene altering 1 note between minor and major to telegraph how the audience is supposed to feel. Telegraph? More like electroshock therapy

This whole thing is a shame because the story could've been interesting and the acting talent was there. I've seen Branagh in much better roles. Michelle Williams was much more interesting in Synecdoche NY. But if the director tells you to act like an idiot then that's what ends up on screen. Director Simon Curtis might have a great future at the Hallmark Channel, creating vapid eye candy that we watch on the gym treadmill with the sound off. But in terms of an enriching cinematic experience, nope.