Some movies are revered for their exceptional advancements in the art of motion picture making. Others are clearly a throwback to that simpler time when movies were required to entertain us without breaking all the rules or simply flooding the screen with a mind-boggling assortment of special effects.
Tom Hooper's The King's Speech (2010) is of this latter ilk; a poignant 'talking picture' whose strength, oddly enough, is derived from its dialogue. I say, oddly, because one of the principle performances in the film requires our patience to suffer through a stutter that is as psychologically crippling to its character as it proves to be a genuine chore to listen to throughout the movie.
Ah, but how well The King's Speech wears this mantel of frozen respectability and how easily it wins our hearts with its re-envisioning of the proverbial 'underdog makes good' narrative that fundamentally we're all suckers for.
Colin Firth magnificently stars as Prince Albert, Duke of York who is the younger brother to David (Guy Pearce) the future King of England. Albert suffers from a near paralytic stutter that is exaggerated whenever he becomes nervous. His shortcomings as a great orator are made painfully clear at the start of David Seidler's screenplay, as Albert attempts to address a crowd of several thousand at Britain's 1925 Empire Exposition inside Wembley Stadium (no, pressure there!).
The address is a disaster and an embarrassment to King George (Michael Gambon). Still, the King can take some comfort in knowing that Albert will not be the one to succeed him on the throne. That honour belongs to first born, David - that is, until he decides to forsake his country for the woman that he loves, divorcee Wallis Simpson (Eve Best).
As George falls ill, and eventually dies, all eyes turn hopeful and desperately for inspiration to Albert and his dutiful, doting wife, Elizabeth (Helena Bonham-Carter). After Albert attempts with no avail to rid himself of his stutter through conventional methods, Elizabeth decides to secure Australian speech therapist, Lionel Logue (Geoffrey Rush) for the cause. At first, Lionel does not recognize Her Royal Majesty and turns the offer down.
Lionel's unorthodox methods for treating the cause of Albert's stuttering create initial friction between the two men. Lionel insists on calling the future King 'Bertie' to his face and thereafter breaks almost every rule of monarchical etiquette in order to challenge and defeat the emotional ties that have made Albert so insecure. After Lionel tells the king that he should abandon smoking to soften his acoustic nerves, Albert informs Lionel that smoking has been soundly conferred on him as a means to manage his stutter by the King's physicians.
"They're idiots," Lionel exclaims.
"They've all been knighted," Albert suggests.
"Makes it official then," concludes Lionel.
As Adolph Hitler amasses his armies in readiness for the invasion of Europe, Albert prepares for what will eventually go down in the annals of history as his finest hour; the King's speech delivered with such sustained poise and grace that it rallies his nation to war.
In the ye good ol' days of Merchant-Ivory, The King's Speech would have been a lavishly appointed Edwardian spectacle with a visual sumptuousness to rival its subject matter. Tom Hooper does not have that luxury, however. In fact, the film was almost not made because no one holding the purse strings could envision a hit from a movie about two men talking to one another.
As such, The King's Speech is very much a throwback to the 'drawing room' talkies made some sixty years before by the Archers at Pinewood Studios in England. There's very little outside of the relationship between Albert and Lionel worth mentioning and yet it proves to be everything!
Danny Cohen's cinematography captures the dark dinginess of coal fogged London. Jenny Beavan's Costume Design resurrects the classicist system with superb attention to every last detail. With the limited means afforded them, Production Designer Eve Stewart and Art Director Netty Chapman work a minor miracle.
Still, the effortless repartee between Rush and Firth is what sustains this movie. Both are skilful thespians, classically trained masters in the art of acting and it shows in every enriching frame that they appear in together. Helena Bonham-Carter is a very capable Queen Elizabeth. Derek Jacobi provides a very solid cameo as Archbishop of Canterbury.
In the final analysis, The King's Speech is most deserving of its Best Picture Academy Award, and now those who missed it in theatres can finally deduce for themselves the reason why. Alliance Home Video's Blu-ray is visually stunning, which is saying much for a film whose cinematography is just average.
The transfer is a feast for the eye with very solid colours that are bold and rich. The film's general colour scheme adopts a blue-gray patina but the Blu-ray's handling of this subtly nuanced palette is perfection!
Fine detail is evident in every scene. Blacks are deep and solid. Whites are somewhat subdued, but again, this is in keeping with the film's original visual presentation. The audio is DTS 5.1 and although hardly as aggressive as your run of the mill action flick, is nevertheless hearty and robust. Dialogue is very natural sounding. Alexandre Desplat's score is given its moment to shine.
Extras are rather limited. We get a featurette on the inspirational back story and a Q&A session with director and cast as well as speeches from the real King George (the name Albert took after becoming king). There's also an informative audio commentary from Hooper.
The King's Speech comes highly recommended. It's 'old fashion' in the very best tradition of movie making and it really reminded this critic why he used to love going to the movies so often as a child.
FILM RATING (out of 5 - 5 being the best)
4
VIDEO/AUDIO
5
EXTRAS
3
1 comments:
With the Royal wedding coming up in 2 days I was inspired to re-watch “The King’s Speech” because it was so good the first time around. I really like the way they develop the story, but it is disappointing it is not as historically accurate as it should be. I guess history isn’t always interesting but the script was written so well that the plot kept me intrigued. I saw it in HD on my DISH Network employee receiver and honestly I was very impressed with the directing and how realistic it looked for the period it was set in. DISH has many movies in HD to choose from too on dishonline.com (http://bit.ly/dJzWgo) as well.
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