M and I went to see The King's Speech when she was in town last week, and it was great. It was witty, touching, and educational too!Early in the movie, we get a recap of our high school history class. Prince Albert (Colin Firth) is the younger of King George V's two sons. David (Guy Pearce), the elder, is set to become king, but he has fallen in love with an American divorcee, and that just won't fly with the Church, so he renounces the throne. That leaves his brother Albert to the throne; Albert ascends as King George VI.
Through the whole movie, though, Albert, the Duke of York, has been struggling with a stammer he's had since he was a child. His wife Elizabeth, the Duchess of York/the Queen Mum (played by the super-wacky Helena Bonham Carter), gets Prince Albert to the office of the unorthodox master of speech defects, Lionel Logue (the astounding Geoffrey Rush). He starts out by asking the Prince to talk to him, maybe to tell him a joke. "T... t... t... timing's not my strong suit," the Prince replies. But he's wrong. The comedic timing through the rest of the film is perfect, and irreverent, which I love. Colin Firth and Geoffrey Rush are both great individually, and are even better together. They rule.
The stage sets and costumes were great, and the slow-paced drama worked like a charm.
Bottom line: see it. Otherwise you won't know what everyone is talking about.
A truly remarkable film, in the most understated of ways. The dynamic between Bertie and his older brother, Edward, were fascinating as they were drawn out through the film. As was the evolution in the relationship between Bertie and Lionel.
ReplyDeleteIt's been sold out in Nashville for the last several days, giving me hope that audiences still appreciate subtle substance over artificially engineered effects and sensationalist plot devices.
That's true, actually. I didn't even talk about the relationship between the brothers, but they do a great job. I love that scene where they get in a fight and revert to being five-year-old children - David makes fun of Bertie's stammer, and Bertie can't defend himself because he can't talk. They know exactly how siblings work.
ReplyDeleteI am happy with the changes that have gone on in the film industry lately. A few years back, when smaller, indie films started getting more and more press, it seemed like it was cutting out the middle movies - the Hollywood films that weren't blockbuster action movies. But this movie fits squarely into that middle category. Big movie with a great, experienced ensemble cast, but also with the more delicate ideas and emotions that often go along with the indies. Maybe this will finally get people going back to the movies.
I wonder what comment Buckingham Palace had?
ReplyDeleteOne of the reasons I liked it was because it was "recent enough" history, but something we really didn't know much about. I mean, it puts the Queen Mum in a different light for me!
Mom
PS when we saw it every seat in the theater was taken.
Long live the King (I mean Colin Firth!)