Spoiler Session: The King's Speech

On Saturday night my friend Emma and I decided to go to the movies and see The King's Speech. 

It.

Was.

So.

GOOD.

MOVIE: The King's Speech

RELEASE: 12/10/2010

RATINGS:

Rotten Tomatoes: 95/100

IMDB: 8.6/10

Me: 10/10

I don't really know where to begin.  This movie was definitely one of the best that I've seen in years.  There are, of course, the amazing actors.  Colin Firth plays the Duke of York (Albert) who becomes King George VI.  Then there's Geoffrey Rush, who plays Lionel Logue (the Duke's speech therapist).  And finally, we have Helena Bonham Carter, who plays the Duchess/Queen.  There are a number of smaller roles as well that should get some mention.  Winston Churchill is played by none other than Peter Pettigrew (I can't remember the guy's real name, so that's what I'm sticking with).  And the former King (the father of the Duke of York) is played by Dumbledore! They of course have real names, but I find it easier to remember who they are by just calling them by their Harry Potter names :P

So, I'm going to start with the things that I didn't like about the movie, just to get them out of the way so that I can get to the good stuff.

First of all, I don't like the fact that Peter Pettigrew played Winston Churchill.  It's not logical, but I just feel like a role like that should be played by someone more...I don't know, worthy?  I understand that it was a very small role (I mean, the guy only had two or three lines throughout the movie) but nonetheless after his past roles in movies like Harry Potter and Enchanted I don't see why he moved away from being the total creeper that he is so good at portraying.

There's also Helena Bonham Carter.  Now, at first I wasn't very happy that she was in this movie, particularly with such a large role.  However, my opinion on that quickly changed.  While she may have a history of roles that are bordering on the edge of insanity (if not far within that border) with roles like the Queen of Hearts and Bellatrix Lestrange, it doesn't mean that she can't also do more sane roles.  In all honesty, now that I've seen the movie I can't think of anyone better to play this role.  She simply aced it.

Now as I stated in my last spoiler session post, I often judge a movie by its trailer.  A bad habit, I know, but I can't help it.  And quite simply, this movie really wasn't much like its trailer.  BUT.  That doesn't mean that it wasn't magnificent.  The trailer portrayed this as very dramatic and intense. But it's easy to see now that while it made a good trailer, it did little to represent the actual film.  In fact, the trailer just about perfectly represents the last 20 or so minutes of the movie.  Everything before that, however, moves at a much calmer pace. 

The rest my problems with the movie lie within the plot and a few specific scenes.  

1)  The scene immediately after Albert's brother renounces his title and gives up the throne, when the Duke (soon-to-be-King) is sitting at a desk.  The scene consists of him crying and telling his wife how this isn't what he wanted and that he doesn't think he will be successful as a monarch.  First of all, as much as I love Colin Firth, his crying was kind of sad, and not in the good way.  That is the single point in the movie that I thought contained bad acting -- I expect better of you Colin Firth! 

Another problem with this scene is its length.  In my opinion, it should have lasted longer and elaborated on his feelings and fears.  As it is, the scene barely lasts a minute, if even that.

2)  When Albert's brother David first takes the throne and they are all at the party and his mistress's house, the two brothers have a fight and one of the points that is brought up is that David had given their mother's room in the palace to his mistress, which was upsetting to the Duke.   So I believe that once George takes the throne they should have added a small scene where it was made clear that the rooms would be returned to his mother.  It would be a small yet effective way at showing the difference between the two brothers. 

3)  As for David's relationship with his mistress, the movie is a bit vague.  It is made clear that the relationship is frowned upon because she is twice-divorced and apparently has a number of flings going on.  But there is little reference made to her as a person.  In all honesty she is portrayed as a bit of a bitchy whore for the short scene that she appears in, but I would like to be more sure of her as a person.  Was she actually that way or was the script just making sure that nobody liked her?  If it's the latter, then it worked rather well.  In the simplest terms, that bitch be crazy.

4)  Now this next part will require a bit of background:
First of all, early in the film before King George V dies, he and Albert discuss their family, but Albert denies the existence of any family.  Instead, he calls it a firm.  And then there is another part where Albert's daughters are going to bed and they ask him to tell them a story.  He does so, and the scene is rather sweet just because of the way that he tries so hard for his girls and they don't seem to mind his speech difficulties at all.
But then later in the film after the Duke is aware that he is to become King, there is a scene that I found rather odd.  Wearing his full Navy uniform, Albert greets his wife and two daughters, but instead of being cute and happy as they usually are, they curtsy to him and call him 'Royal Highness,' which visibly upsets him.  I understand that the idea behind the scene is that his family is moving towards becoming the firm that he hated so much about his father's monarchy.  But I found the scene to be kind of random.  This was the only point in the entire movie when there is anything like it.  Every other time both before and after this scene, the girls are just as happy and playful as they should be.  There is never any reference to them becoming more guarded around their father or anything like that, so why do that scene?  I guess that I just don't understand it’s purpose. 

5)  And finally, my last issue with the movie is the climax.  Where is it, again?  After discussing this some with Emma, it seems that there are two possible climaxes.  One possibility is the fight that Albert has with Lionel while they are out on the walk.  For me, that was the turning point in the story.  His father then dies and all of the problems with his brother really add to the stress of what's going on just then.  But Emma feels that the climax is at the end of the movie when Albert is able to give the speech so successfully.  I don't know.  I wouldn't exactly call this an issue that I have with the movie, but I would like to have things be a bit more clear I suppose.

Wow.  I ended up writing a bit more there than I had planned on, but oh well.  Now for the things that I loved.

Can I just say everything?  Does that count?  I guess not since I already stated a few things that I disagreed with.  Bummer. 

Well as I said before, the actors are a big part of this film.  Helena Bonham Carter did an amazing job, even if it was her first sane role in years.  And Dumbledore did amazingly as well, even though his part was limited and his character was kind of a jerk. 

But Colin Firth was the best by far.  I'm sure that it was very difficult for him to pull off such an amazing role.  The way that he talked and acted made it seem to real; I would almost argue that he must have the same speech impediment that he was portraying; how else could he do it so well?  I suppose that I really shouldn't be surprised though.  I have never been disappointed in any role of his.  And this exceeds every other one I've ever seen by so much.  I just don't know how to describe it.

There are a couple scenes that I would call my favorites.  One is the curse scene.  I'm sure that everyone who's seen this movie loved that scene.  It pretty much consists of Albert trying to talk to Geoffrey and every time he stumbles he just lets out a string of  curses until the scene just becomes him yelling out curse after curse.  It really was quite hilarious.  And at the end of that long line of explicatives he says one last word , "tits," before taking a deep breath and stopping.  The scene was just done so well.  Everybody in the theater seemed to love it.  This idea is repeated a couple times during the movie.  Albert would be talking with Lionel and he'll just randomly curse, and then at the end when Albert is giving his final speech into the radio microphone Lionel is standing right across from him mouthing curse words every time he gets hesitant. 

Similar ideas are present in other parts of the movie as well.  Another of Lionel's teachings was to have Albert try to sing what he wanted to say, because it was often easier to sing than it was to talk.  So any time Albert was having difficulty he would randomly start singing and cursing and doing any number of things to help himself through. 

The most notable part is when Albert and Lionel are sitting at the table and messing with the plane model.  Albert is upset about his father's death and Lionel is able to get him to talk about things.  So Albert beings telling a story (half telling/half singing) about his first nanny. 

Earlier in the movie Lionel had attempted to get Albert to discuss how he thought he had come to have the speech impediment, but Albert had refused, stating that he did not know.  But this scene reveals it all.  It was actually a very moving scene.

Albert talks about his first nanny, who hated him but loved his brother David.  So the nanny was quite mean.  One time she pinched him right before the family's daily viewing so that he would cry and be unable to attend, which effectively showed off David and left Albert in the dark.  She would also consistently ignore him and avoid giving him meals.  It took the family 3 years to figure out what was going on.  He had also had a couple of other problems "fixed."  He was born left-handed, but was forced to become right-handed, and he was also born with knobby knees, and his family had painful metal inserts put into his legs until he could stand perfectly upright.  All of this together is what we can assume led to his problems.

But anyways, the way that Colin Firth does this scene makes it, in my opinion, the most moving scene in the film, even more so than the scene at the end when he successfully reads the speech. 

I understand that I wrote a bit more about the negatives than I did the positives, but let it be clear that I absolutely loved this movie.

Love.

Love.

LOVED IT.