The King’s Speech

[reddie2]

I would be gobsmacked if this film doesn't get a stack full of nominations for the Oscars next year and frankly I think I might have seen the Best Picture winner.
The film was wonderfully introduced by Tom Hooper. He explained how proud he was to show his film at Odeon Leicester Sq, he used to go to the same cinema when he was in his teens and said he would be a proper filmmaker one day if his film was shown there. He explained that writer David Seidler actually had a stammer himself and his idol had been King George VI and this was originally a play shown at the Pleasance Theatre in london and when his mum (a script writer) saw it, she called him straight away to say this is going to be your next film!
This was truly a dream cast, a cast of thespians rather than showy hollywood stars. With the strong record of royal figures and people playing disabilities winning the acting gongs, It would be no surprise to see Colin Firth walk off with the best actor award. He is simply sublime in the role. It's his interactions with Geoffrey Rush that forms the fulcrum of the film and both just shone brightly in the film. However for me the best acting came from Helena Bonham Carter, her subtle support of her husband in an understated manner was fantastic. I fear though it's too understated to win her any awards (hope not)
The art direction was stunning, one of the most beautiful period films you will see, great attention to detail.
The bad points....well it does drag in the middle and you do wonder where the film's going (but it does end in a suitably patriotic note, hence the title the King's speech). There is a certain sense, haven't I seen all this before? The Queen, The Madness of King George III (which gets name checked in this film), so some people might come out and go "whats all the fuss"? But I am sure most people will come out of the cinema and go wow, what a very well made film.
9/10

Literally quoting every word
I found it hard to refrain from sobbing at the end of the movie after "the speech", but the lady sitting next to me didn't bother and cried her heart out. Some bits had me in stitches though, the relationship between Bertie and Lionel was amazing and I so agree on Helena Bonham Carter's interpretation.
Colin Firth is ageing well, both as a man and as an actor , and after having been quite close to win an Oscar this year, he'd really deserve one for his acting in this movie.

Will definitely see it again when it goes on general release.
9/10

[superhero]

There should be some previews for this, it's with momentum,so maybe check the momentum preview site. It won't be for a while though, it now has a Jan 7th release date.
They've also just managed to lower the classification from 15 to a 12a.
I got abit emotional too at the end. I think what helped when it was beginning to drag was the introduction of some strong historical character, Churchill, Chamberlain, Baldwin, Mrs Wallace Simpson, our current Queen (it was odd watching her watch a film clip of Hitler...)

[superhero]

Four stars from the Guardian today on the "clever anti-Pygmalion". Funny he also mentions the scene where our current Queen is watching a newsreel of Hitler. And also mentions what the director said in his introduction about the death of the Film Council.


The King's Speech – review
This handsome movie about the abdication crisis and George VI's stammer is a clever anti-Pygmalion

Peter Bradshaw guardian.co.uk, Thursday 21 October 2010 16.33 BST Article history
Regal baring ... Colin Firth in The King's Speech

If this is to be the UK Film Council's swan song it's gone out on a high note, or rather a regal flourish of trumpets. Tom Hooper's richly enjoyable and handsomely produced movie about George VI's struggle to cure his stammer is a massively confident crowd-pleaser. What looks at first like an conventional Brit period drama about royals is actually a witty and elegant new perspective on the abdication crisis and on the dysfunctional quiver at the heart of the Windsors and of prewar Britain. It suggests there was a time when a member of the royal household experimented with psychoanalysis – disguised as speech therapy.

The King's Speech
Production year: 2010Countries: Rest of the world, UK Directors: Tom HooperCast: Colin Firth, Geoffrey Rush, Helena Bonham Carter, Michael GambonMore on this filmColin Firth gives a warm and sympathetic performance as Bertie, the Duke Of York, an introverted and uncomfortable stammerer, bullied by his father George V, played by Michael Gambon, and overshadowed by his charismatic playboy older brother, David, a role dispatched with some style by Guy Pearce, incidentally putting to rest the overpowering memory of Edward Fox in the part. Helena Bonham Carter is Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, his robustly supportive wife who, with her intuitive sense of when and how to dispense with her own reverence for protocol, engages a new Australian speech therapist to help her despairing husband. This is the eccentric and undeferential Leonard Logue, played by Geoffrey Rush. Logue is a man who must cure his own demons – a sense of failure over never having made it as a professional actor – and who is everywhere patronised as a colonial.

The movie is a clever anti-Pygmalion. Where Henry Higgins had to get Eliza Doolittle to smarten up and talk proper, Logue finds his pupil has gone too far in the other direction: Bertie is too constrained, too clenched, too formal and too miserable. To untie his tongue he has to relax, but also to talk about what makes him unhappy, as he has never done with anyone in his life before. David, effortlessly debonair and stubbornly set on a marriage to Mrs Simpson, is going to thrust upon Bertie's shoulders the awful burden of kingship, which, in the new era of radio, depends on public speaking as never before.

When Logue's methods get results, Bertie is delighted, and Logue becomes a sensational new royal favourite whose intimacy with the duke astonishes and infuriates the palace establishment, particularly the Archbishop of Canterbury, played by Derek Jacobi (himself a legendary screen stammerer in I, Claudius). Hooper's film subtly suggests that Bertie has defiantly learned one thing from his ne'er-do-well brother: Logue is to be his very own Mrs Simpson, a commoner who has to be tolerated by the royals. Of course, Logue gets it wrong. He presumes too much.Bertie's royal arrogance and coldness are not so easily unlearned and Logue is spurned: a morganatic bromantic lovers' tiff.

There are many incidental pleasures in David Seidler's screenplay. On being thanked for some small service, Logue asks: "What are friends for?" "I wouldn't know," snaps the duke. After watching the newsreel of the coronation, the new royal family finds itself mesmerised by the sight of Hitler at Nuremberg. "What's he saying?" asks one of his daughters. "I don't know, but he seems to be saying it rather well," says the new king thoughtfully. (As it happens, the movie skates tactfully over Queen Elizabeth's enthusiasm for appeasement, passing more or less straight from the abdication to the outbreak of war.) There is strong support from Anthony Andrews as Baldwin and a jowl-wobbling portrayal of Churchill from Timothy Spall. Fans of TV's Outnumbered will be very pleased to see nine-year-old Ramona Marquez cast as Princess Margaret, although I wonder if she shouldn't really have been Elizabeth. This was the real popular hit at the London film festival.

[akh43]

Just filled in the feedback on sky for The Next 3 Days and noticed that this film was at the top of the list where you choose the film you are giving feedback on, I assume from this it will probably be a free sky preview at some point in the near future. Last time this happened the film came on previews within the week. Good job I signed up for Sky Movies for Christmas so now legit. One to watch for reading this thread, just hope I'm not at work when they make it live.

[superhero]

There's more advertising for the Grolsch screening of this in the Metro. Why don't they just save on the advertising and do more screenings and give the guests a few more drinks....

[ejwrank]

My son managed to get free tickets for this tonight (lucky Nottingham getting an early preview--hope the rest of us also get the chance) and he writes:



The King's Speech was definitely brilliant. I don't know if you've seen it yet but it was a wonderful piece of work, loved it, loved it. I can imagine it doing very well. One of the producers did a Q and A which was nice. I got the impression this was one of the first ever screenings so I'm trying to create the buzz. Colin Firth as King George VI and Geoffrey Rush as his speech therapist were both excellent and so was Helena Bonham Carter as the Queen Mother. Karen from Outnumbered played Princess Margaret! She got a massive cheer when she was first shown!

[Ms Thrifty]

There's more advertising for the Grolsch screening of this in the Metro. Why don't they just save on the advertising and do more screenings and give the guests a few more drinks....

Yes, there was a half-page ad in yesterday's Guardian, meaning even more people will now apply for the free tickets - grrr!

[prettyxcool]

My son managed to get free tickets for this tonight (lucky Nottingham getting an early preview--hope the rest of us also get the chance) and he writes:



The King's Speech was definitely brilliant. I don't know if you've seen it yet but it was a wonderful piece of work, loved it, loved it. I can imagine it doing very well. One of the producers did a Q and A which was nice. I got the impression this was one of the first ever screenings so I'm trying to create the buzz. Colin Firth as King George VI and Geoffrey Rush as his speech therapist were both excellent and so was Helena Bonham Carter as the Queen Mother. Karen from Outnumbered played Princess Margaret! She got a massive cheer when she was first shown!

So glad he got to see it! I can't wait to see this, seen the trailer and it looked really good, and I also love Colin Firth!

[superhero]

I think it's a great film, but it must be careful not the be overhyped and get the front runner tag too quickly for the Oscars, however it should do well...

[superhero]

I would say don't panic, I think there will be lots of free screenings for the King's Speech