Fresh from the yawn-fest that was Black Swan; how about an uplifting tale of overcoming disability, how about The King’s Speech?
So there’s this bloke and he has a bit of stammer. And he finds another bloke to help him; and for two hours they embark on a number of increasingly bizarre remedial exercises. At the end of it all the stammering bloke makes a nice little speech without stammering and everyone claps. The end.
Really, that’s the entire story. Of course it is juiced up a little by the fact that the stammering bloke is king of England and his ending speech comes at the start of World War 2. So we have the usual suspects of the period, including Helena Bonham Carter as the person we now know as the (dead) Queen mother; but as she fails to spend the movie surrounded by empty bottles of gin and waving aimlessly at everyone, I think she failed to capture the character. Then there is Timothy Spall, with an almost cartoon-like impersonation of Winston Churchill; quite appalling.
The stammering bloke (a.k.a. King George VI), is played by Colin Firth and the man who makes the stammer go away is played by Geoffrey Rush. Both competent actors and they both do a competent job. But there is not much to work with. The script is mainly plodding, relieved by a few attempts at wit; and there is nothing in the way of plot beyond fixing the stammer, with the back-story of history to beef things up a bit.
The King’s Speech is not a bad movie. Knock 30 minutes off the length and make it for TV and it would be a fun diversion. But as Oscar material for Best Actor or Best Picture? Oh please….
She who must be obeyed gave it 6 out of 10, so marginally preferred it to The Black Swan. I just wish I hadn’t bothered with either of them.
Comments 🔗
2011-01-25| Pete says12 Oscar nominations …
2011-01-25| Spike saysI despair.
2011-01-31| Pete saysScreen Actor’s Guild awards as well. Good job the arse and Tesco’s window quip wasn’t about this film! I might have had to shop in Makro for a week.
2011-02-14| seo tutorial saysCongratulations are due to Colin Firth et al for the success at the Baftas of The King’s Speech but let’s not forget that the real winner here is writer David Seidler who waited twenty-five years for the Queen Mum to die so he could use his material. No doubt about it, he’s the real star here!
2011-02-14| Pete says7 B-B-B-BAFTAs (including best picture, best actor and best supporting actor and actress)
2011-02-14| Spike saysBBBBBBBollocks
2011-02-28| Spike saysOscars….Yeah, I know. … Still, if those responsible fail to give a Music (original score) Oscar to Inception; then clearly they have no taste.