The King's Speech (2010)

Wow what a beautiful film about King George VI and his speech therapist helping him with an awful stammer. The added weight of impending war with Germany gives the needed urgency. I liked this facet of it, and it worked flawlessly, much as it did in Remains of the Day.

Now I am a boorish American, I'll admit that. But I love British films that deal with the throne, great wealth, aristocracy, butlers, fox hunting, and "you may have some more port if you desire, but do not come into the drawing room"-type stuff (maybe cause my name is Earl, maybe cause its SOOO different than my experience.

Great emotional impact in this film thanks to Colin Firth and Geoffrey Rush. This is a solid, quiet story about self worth and redemption done up without all the Hollywood hoopla, rising cheesy music, overdone reaction shots, etc. If anything could be called "lovely", this movie would be it.

I could watch Firth stutter all day, have Rush benignly stare at me for months, and hell, I'd even curtsy and gush repeatedly for Helena Bonham Carter.

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Under-the-radar Movie Awesomeness.
http://earlsmoviepicks.blogspot.com/

I find English period movies unless there is fighting to be a bore. Talk, talk, talk, and moves at a snail's pace.The only thing good about Chariots of Fire was the catchy tune. The rest of it was deadly dull. The good thing about a movie about aristocrats is it means British accents that are understandable to American ears. Movies about the working class should have subtitles.

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It reminds me of a toilet paper on the trees
- Paula

Not enough has been said on this forum about this amazing movie.

I was just over at Awards Daily (formerly Oscarwatch) and I am reminded about why I'm so happy I don't post there anymore...there has always been this rather snobbish attitude over there about the Best Picture of the year. To them, the age old argument that Citizen Kane should have won in 1941 over that sentimental Ford movie, How Green was My Valley, forms their self-righteous agony over the winners every year. To them, when the critics back a film, that is the film that SHOULD win, and if a film happens to win over a critics’ darling – 1990 comes to mind when the sentimental and popular film, Dances With Wolves beat the critics’ darling, Goodfellas – then it is time to bitch and complain about the state of the Academy Awards and decide those voters are nothing but a bunch of idiots.

This year, they are incredibly bothered that a film like The King’s Speech would beat The Social Network.

They keep forgetting this is a popularity contest and that popularity contest is no greater than in the Best Picture race. Heart is always part of the equation. The largest part.

I think The Social Network deserves every accolade it has gotten. Fincher did an amazing job as did Sorkin and everyone else involved in this film. Unfortunately, it is the Goodfellas of this year and will most likely lose to the sentimental and popular film. And tomorrow, all those Oscarwatcher types will bitch and complain about how the wrong film won.

Which leads to me to this – if The King’s Speech wins, and I predict it will, then I happen to think it is the right film, just like I thought Dances With Wolves was the right film, and blasphemy, it may even be that How Green Was My Valley was also the right film at the time. We can argue for days and days about how brilliant Citizen Kane is, but I'd wager not a lot of people would say that film got to them right in the gut. The film has always struck me as very very cold. John Ford won four Academy Awards. He made films with heart.

Let’s face facts – what cinephine doesn’t have a top ten list where a few of the films there would not be considered a “best” film by a score of critics? I’d wager there are a few films listed there that are personal favorites. And how does a film become a favorite? It makes the list because we love the movie.

The King’s Speech is that kind of film. It is not an accident that Colin Firth is winning all those awards. We root for Bertie, we like Bertie, we cry when he is able to face his fears. He is us… every one of us who has ever been afraid, shy, or unsure. Even more surprising is that he is playing a King – not exactly your run of the mill character and certainly not someone most of us would root for. Firth is flat out amazing and is why we love the movie. It is also the reason why the film will win.

It certainly helps that Tom Hooper was able to set just the right tone in this film and make all those dialogue scenes interesting. He even made the walls interesting. This is one of those rare films that is not what you think it will be. No, there is not one chase scene, nor is there any action, and in the end, you didn’t even notice. You may have thought the film would be a bore. You were wrong, so pleasantly wrong.

It matters that a film like this has found an audience and is on the cusp of winning an Academy Award. When I lament the loss of subtlety and drama in this age of cleverness and chases, a movie like this comes along and reminds me that all is not lost.




I will add that both The King's Speech and The Social Network are films built on dialogue and character. But, we love the King and dislike the accidental billionaire. And that is what makes one a Best Picture winner and the other not.

As long as Firth gets Best Actor, I'm happy

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You cannot have it both ways. A dancer who relies upon the doubtful comforts of human love can never be a great dancer. Never. (The Red Shoes, 1948)

I totally disagree. Sentimental favorites usually fade after time.

I am not a big fan of Goodfellows, but it certainly was better than that boring Dances with Wolves.

And How Green was My Valley? Is that on anybody's list of movies you want to watch over and over. I saw it once and that was enough. Here are the other nominees that year: HOW GREEN WAS MY VALLEY", "Blossoms in the Dust", "Citizen Kane", "Here Comes Mr. Jordan", "Hold Back the Dawn", "The Little Foxes", "The Maltese Falcon", "One Foot in Heaven", "Sergeant York", "Suspicion

I've seen them all except Blossons in the Dust and One Foot in Heaven. I never heard of either one. As for the others, I have seen them all more than once except Hold Back the Dawn, which I wouldn't mind seeing again, which means in my book they are more interesting that the John Ford. Certainly Citizen Kane is superior to Valley, and so is the very entertaining, masterfully directed and acted Maltese Falcon.

Have you even seen The King's Speech?

And no, sentimental films do not fade over time. Look at Spielberg's films! Schlinder's List has sentiment! I hate that argument anyway; it's like something is wrong with a film that makes you feel something? Besides, critics are in love with TKS too.

The only reason people jumped on the Goodfellas over DWW bandwagon was because it was Marty and Kevin's career went into the crapper. Revision and rewriting history is an interesting thing.

How Green was my Valley is an excellent film and yea, so is The Maltese Falcon. But let's face it, a film noir isn't exactly the kind of film that grabs a lot of votes. People seem to forget that the BP winner is the top vote getter of a lot of people that have many different tastes. And they didn't know what they had with Citizen Kane. But it's all subjective.

I'm most definitely not saying that How Green was my Valley is superior to the other films --- my favorite of the bunch is Suspicion. What I dislike is a certain snobbishness that happens around the BP race.

This film has made over $200 million worldwide. This is quite a phenomenon. A small film that grabbed the spotlight. It's pretty fascinating, in my opinion and good for movies and for those of us that love character and dialogue and story.

I have not seen The King's Speeech. I saw Dances with Wolves when first released and was not impressed at all. Goodfellows I didn't see until a few years later. But Hollywood often picks for Best Picture movies that over time are not as well liked or remembered as others that came out the same year. In 1941 nominated were two movies most people, even movie buffs, haven't heard of, and bypassed High Sierra and The Lady Eve. One Foot in Heaven I looked up and is about the life of a Methodist minister. That is the kind of safe, bland product Hollywood of old preferred to honor and new Hollywood isn't much different.

Don't get me started on the Monarchy
　
Int. Coffee shop - Day.

A young man watches a friend rush across a rainy street outside. He enters and orders a coffee. As he leaves, he spots him and comes over.

How's it going dude?
Can't complain.
Where you off to in such a dither?
I'm just on the way to the cinema. I'm grabbing a cafe latte beforehand.
I don't think you're allowed to bring your own food or beverages.
Ah, it's okay, I'll hide it in my pants.
You live dangerously my man. So ... whatcha going to see?
The King's speech with um ...
Mr Darcy, Miss Elizabeth and Mr Collins. Ah yeah, caught that last week. A very muted palette. Brilliant cinematography. Wonderful costume design.

(beat)

So what's it about? And mind the spoilers el duderino.
Um ... a king's speech.
What?
The king has to make a speech
On a burning ship?
No. just a regular one with a microphone.
With a sub-machine gun pointed at the Queen mum's favorite Corgi?
No.
The speech ... is being flown in on airplane from Gibraltar and has ... catastrophic engine failure orchestrated by Nazi sympathizers---
---Your missing the point. It's not an action film. The speech is already there, it just has to be read.
Which would make this ....
---a dramatic slash historical fiction slash period piece.
So the film is just one long boring speech.
No, the speech is rather short and to the point. It's play on words.

He takes a sip of his coffee and watches a young woman run past outside using her purse to shield herself from the rain.

What's the complication?
The poor bastard's got a speech impediment. He stutters. There's an erroneous misconception in the general public that stutterers are mental defects.
And?
He's got to fix that in order to inspire the bloody masses, mate.
Couldn't you just hire a professional interlocutor?
Can't. He's the King. It's his job.
But he stutters.
So?
Woah. Hold it right there. Isn't he insanely overpaid for ribbon ceremonies; standing and waving to crowds and the occasion speech? He's got 3 things to do and right off the bat he's only doing two thirds of his job description.

(beat)

He'll give it the old college try.
It's not about the old college try, that's grounds for dismissal in the real world. He's distinctly under qualified.
You don't have to be qualified if you're royalty. You just have to be in line for throne.
Couldn't they have checked his references while he was cooling his heels in line all those years? Hey you there, with the big ears. Here's a pair of scissors, pretend to snip something. Okay, now wave. Now the other hand. Fine, now, repeat after me: Peter piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.
Can"t. You can't mess with royal lineage
What?
The divine hand of God has reached down from the celestial heavens and anointed his father's father from time immemorial as a paragon among all other mortal men on the earth and appointed him sovereign master over his earthly empire and all it's belongings
--without even a multiple choice quiz or an essay question?
God is infallible.
Let me see if I'm reading this right. The divine hand of God selected a fricking public figurehead who can't speak in fricking public.
(beat)

I think you're over analyzing a bit. A king has higher standards and obligations than normal men.
Obviously not! Jiminy crickets! Can you imagine a world run by divine succession? The royal food taster bequeaths his golden spoon and fork to his anorexic daughter. The royal movie reviewer passes down his title to his dyslexic son who prefers to spend his days collecting Party of Five memorabilia. The royal swim suit model bequeaths her bikini to her buck toothed daughter. The world would go to hell in hand basket pretty quickly under such a system.

(beat)

Obviously It's not a general public kind of thing. It's reserved for billionaires. Keeps all the filthy lucre in the family.
Fine! Anything else?
Hey, don't kill the messanger. It was suggested that Geoffrey Rush also overcame a stutter also.
Geoffrey Rush stuttered?
No. Not the actor, his character in the film may have also stuttered.
So in a nutshell, basically your typical end of the year Oscar bait. Fricking great. You've talked me out of it.

(beat)

I hear there's a make-out scene between Mila Kunis and Natalie Portman in Black Swan.
Dude, You so read my mind. We still have the minutes. Let's go.

They both stuff their coffee cups in their pants and walk very carefully outside towards his car.

The camera pans around to reveal Helena Bonham Carter and Tim Burton sitting in the background unnoticed by the two young men.
Tim looks at her: I did a bit of snipping in Edward Scissorhands.
She smiles: I did a lot more in Margaret's museum.

The King's speech ~

Interesting choice for sure. Used on a gay porn set and Amy Whinehouse music video

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If I had a dollar for every existential crisis I've ever had, does money really even matter?

I know I just read that this morning!

I don't know how I feel about this.

I guess that wall's just sitting on a back lot somewhere.

This movie is about a speech impediment? I can relate. I used to have to go to speech therapy classes in elementary school (I was a lispy little fellow, you see.) GOD, THEY WERE AWFUL. I had my parents take me out of them. When everyone else from my class went to recess, I WENT TO SPEECH THERAPY.

Although, to be honest, being special because of your mouth isn't really a bad thing. You get to become the center of attention and people care about what you say. There weren't too many people in the room with me. Sometimes it might even be just me or one other kid. I hated it most of the time, but sometimes I was sent away while my normal class was in session, so it was like a nice little breather. Oh, those were the moments, when everyone else was about to do something really boring and my teacher would go, "Sexy, leave. You've gotta go to speech." How envious of me the others were!

Ooooooh, Hello.

Both my sons had speech therapy. They never really complained, but I do teach a student who hates going and fights with me when I have to send him.

My younger son still stammers. He really did love this movie.

Here is another king with a speech problem.

There might have been a time I refused to go and didn't until the speech teacher came to my class angry. I dunno if this is a vague memory or just my imagination, but it's possible. Perhaps I skipped to go to recess. There seemed to be a year I kept being sent just as recess was starting (and I remember us having long recesses.) I really hated it the last year I was in it (3rd grade, I believe.) It just seemed monotonous because I had been going since kindergarten. Maybe I was getting nowhere. I believe I had trouble with S and Sh words.

I have to disagree with you on this, Will. If "sentimental" favorites fade with time we wouldn't remember any of the runner up films you mention. The only one of the bunch that truly blazed new fields was Citizen Kane. The Maltese Falcon was a second remake of the same story years before Bogart became the iconic figure with the cult following of today. Some of the best British actors working at that time were in How Green Was My Valley, and the same is true of The King's Speech. Maybe it's because I don't put too much stock in the Academy Awards, but the fact they didn't win best picture doesn't make me like Citizen Kane or The Maltese Falcon any less. Besides the Academy Awards reflect the Academy's valuations and has nothing to do with whether you and I agree or not.

It so happens The King's Speech is the only one of the nominated films I've seen this year, because it's the only one that interested me enough to go buy a ticket to see. But I didn't have to view the others to recognize the award-winning quality of that film, which I correctly picked as winner of the best picture award in our poll.

Incidentally, I've sat through many viewings of How Green Was My Valley and Chariots of Fire, but one viewing of GoodFellas, Saving Pvt. Ryan, and Dances with Wolves was more than enough.

perfect directed , perfect characters..simple supermovie

I used to stutter some when I was a kid, just at the start of a sentence - think about starting a car, and that is how my sentences would sometimes come out. Occasionally, when I am really, really tired, I will stutter here and there. I never took any therapy for it, it just worked itself out as I got older.

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I'll eventually write a review for this, once I finish the one for Another Year. But to sum it up in short: middle-brow, Oscar-gimme nonsense.

Kings Speech was a wonderfully done film... Undecided if it should have won best picture or best actor, was actually a tie with James Franco for me personally. All in all, Kings Speech a good movie portraying a true story...