Nobody at the Weinstein Co. told me about last night’s 6 pm screening of My Week With Marilyn, which was more or less concurrent with the NY Film Festival evening showing. A friend told me about it at 5 pm while I was at a party, but it was too late to put down my glass of red wine and plate of food and hop on the scooter and go roaring over to the Wilshire screening room with a mild buzz-on. So I shined it.

That aside three reviewers — Deadline‘s Pete Hammond, Variety‘s Ronnie Schieb and the Hollywood Reporter‘s David Rooney — are differing with Indiewire‘s Eric Kohn and other nip-nippers who put the film down yesterday afternoon following the NYFF press screening.

Hammond: “I have to confess that, after seeing some selected footage [from My Week With Marilyn] that was shown at the Weinstein party in Cannes last May, I had my doubts about Williams as Monroe. But those concerns were completely erased in the context of the entire film where she gets to show three distinctly different sides of the star without ever drifting into impersonation.

“Besides Williams, the film contains another surefire acting nominee in Kenneth Branagh‘s biting and all-knowing interpretation of Laurence Olivier.”

Schieb: “The film belongs to Williams, whose tour-de-force turn conflates three Marilyns: the lost, damaged little girl who seeks to escape others’ expectations and return to simpler childhood days; the sexy superstar who impishly poses with a wink in complicity with her public; and the actress playing a pre-scripted part. The genius of the performance lies in the way Williams stresses the interconnectedness of these personalities: The neediness fuels the impudence, the vulnerability turns sexually provocative, and the little girl and sexpot together drive the screen role.

Rooney: “The luminous Michelle Williams gives a layered performance that goes beyond impersonation in My Week With Marilyn. Playing both the damaged, insecure woman and the sensual celebrity construct, as well as the role with which Marilyn Monroe was struggling during a particularly difficult shoot, Williams gets us on intimate terms with one of Hollywood’s most enduring and tragic icons. If much of what surrounds her in Simon Curtis‘ biographical drama is less nuanced, her work alone keeps the movie entertaining.”