My Week with Marilyn [Original Motion Picture Soundtrack] (CD) by Conrad Pope / Alexandre Desplat

CD. Conrad Pope is the credited composer for the score of My Week with Marilyn, but, as indicated on this soundtrack album, his work has been augmented significantly. Pope is better known as an orchestrator and conductor than as a composer, which may be why the producers seem to have hedged their bets by bringing in the more famous Alexandre Desplat, who gets an album cover credit for having composed "Marilyn's Theme," actually the leadoff track, but who also has another nine cues among the 26 heard on the album. That's the same number as Pope. The remaining tracks include some period source music heard in the film, such as hits by Dean Martin and Nat King Cole, as well as performances by the actress Michelle Williams, who plays Marilyn Monroe, of songs associated with Monroe, albeit not ones actually associated with the events of this film. My Week with Marilyn is based on the memoirs of filmmaker Colin Clark (son of Sir Kenneth Clark) concerning his first movie job, when he managed to get hired as an assistant right out of college on The Prince and the Showgirl, starring Monroe and Sir Laurence Olivier (played by Kenneth Branagh). The additions of production numbers at the start and end of My Week with Marilyn that find Williams singing "Nothin' Goes Right," "Heat Wave," and "That Old Black Magic" may be gratuitous, but they are entertaining. Pope, as his orchestration talent demonstrates, has an ability to handle pastiches, which he does on "Colin Joins the Circus" and "Eton Schoolyard," both of which suggest post-swing big-band jazz. He also writes some lighthearted adventure music to get across Clark's innocent enthusiasm for filmmaking. Desplat handles most of the ponderous and poignant music associated with the delicate and damaged Marilyn Monroe, and he has classical pianist Lang Lang to play it for him. The overall result is a varied collection of music for a sweet, sentimental movie that illuminates the shadows in some famous lives of the mid-'50s. ~ William Ruhlmann, Rovi