REVIEW: THE KING'S SPEECH: R
It seems more and more the best movies made nowadays aren't from Hollywood, a weirdly ironic statement considering that's all there was back in those days; Hollywood. Take a look at the past 3 Best Picture winners: "No Country for Old Men," "Slumdog Millionaire" and "The Hurt Locker," all backed with famous directors but released independently. I'm not sure why this is such a large trend with films currently but I love it, because "The King's Speech" is one of the best movies you will see all year.
The film concerns a very large fear in the world: public speaking. There's that old statistic that says more people would rather "be in the coffin than the person speaking about it." Now picture yourself as the king of England with a stuttering problem trying to address the entire country. The film opens with a humiliating speech Bertie (King George VI, played with absolute brilliance by soon-to-be Oscar winner Colin Firth) delivers, barely getting a sentence out into the microphone. His wife, played by Helena Bonham Carter, seeks therapeutic help, and after having several failures goes to a last resort, finding an Australian man who works in his house. They discover Lionel Logue, the answer to all of Bertie's problems, but there are several obstacles in the way of achieving his goal of speaking regularly.
Geoffrey Rush plays "Dr." Logue with a fine elegance about him, inhabiting his role with pride and self-awareness that really carries the film.
Period dramas tend to be slow and unbelievably boring, like those on a PBS miniseries or the like. "The King's Speech" is a film with outstanding performances and an above average plot that with the wrong hands, would've been a dreadful result. But in director Tom Hooper's hands, the film is, to quote "Dr." Logue, "sublime."
Rating: 10/10
The film concerns a very large fear in the world: public speaking. There's that old statistic that says more people would rather "be in the coffin than the person speaking about it." Now picture yourself as the king of England with a stuttering problem trying to address the entire country. The film opens with a humiliating speech Bertie (King George VI, played with absolute brilliance by soon-to-be Oscar winner Colin Firth) delivers, barely getting a sentence out into the microphone. His wife, played by Helena Bonham Carter, seeks therapeutic help, and after having several failures goes to a last resort, finding an Australian man who works in his house. They discover Lionel Logue, the answer to all of Bertie's problems, but there are several obstacles in the way of achieving his goal of speaking regularly.
Geoffrey Rush plays "Dr." Logue with a fine elegance about him, inhabiting his role with pride and self-awareness that really carries the film.
Period dramas tend to be slow and unbelievably boring, like those on a PBS miniseries or the like. "The King's Speech" is a film with outstanding performances and an above average plot that with the wrong hands, would've been a dreadful result. But in director Tom Hooper's hands, the film is, to quote "Dr." Logue, "sublime."
Rating: 10/10
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