Pbenjay's Blog

The King's Speech

Saw the highly acclaimed movie, The King’s Speech last night, and even as I write this, I’m not sure what I’m going to say about it.  Well let me begin with this; I didn’t think it was as good as I expected it to be.  Of course that could be the age-old problem of way too much hype in the media and from your friends before you actually see it.  I don’t know what I expected, I just know I didn’t get it.

There were at least two story lines that I thought should have been played out a little more;  I know the movie was about Albert BUT really…the whole Wallis Simpson/Duke of Windsor thing could have gotten a few more scenes.  It was only in the remarks made by the other characters  that were telling about the affair and the effects of it upon the royal family and the nation.  Funny thing about it is that growing up and never having read anything about the abdication of King Edward, but knowing about somehow, I always thought of it as some romantic love affair, truly l’affaire de couer. And I guess it was truly a love affair since after all the man DID give away his throne for the divorced and married Wallis.  In this movie, however, even with such minimal scenes devoted to it, the relationship seemed sordid, unhealthy and foolish.

The other area where I think the audience was left wondering was in the repeated attempts of  the Duke of York to deliver a speech or address an audience.  In the fist moments of the film, we see the agonizing efforts of the young Albert fiercely trying to talk into the wireless in his futile attempts to deliver an address to a large crowd at the British Empire Exhibition.  This is the first of many painful public humiliations we are witness to during the movie.  Each time we are only treated to a beginning line or two and then the scene changes.  I do understand that his abortive attempts and gaping silences are enough for us to get the idea that his stammering is excruciating to him, his family and his subjects.  BUT – how did he get through those speeches?  In some of the scenes it is clear that his throat is almost paralyzed and his tongue completely tied.  So what happened?  I kind of thought in the first scene that his wife was going to jump out of her seat and take over for him!  Well that was before I saw the rest of the movie which consistently reminded the viewer of the strict adherence to protocol the royal family so intensely clung.

And now the good part;  Colin Firth is magnificent!  His portrayal of the stuttering, stammering, frail, sickly boy grown up into a shy, withdrawing and self-deprecating younger brother to the soon-to-be-king is flawless.  He embodies the character, completely.  Firth’s ability to go from silence into rage is remarkable as his ability to put himself on-screen rolling about on the floor, flapping his lips, waggling his head and jumping up and down with Geoffrey Rush – the two of them looked like monkeys playing, lol.

Colin’s performance clearly puts him high up in the Best Actor category.  Quite frankly, I don’t know who could beat him.  A few month’s ago, I wrote a review about The Social Network and I praised Jesse Eisenberg‘s performance as Mark Zuckerberg as nothing less than superbly wonderful (see prior blog: The Social Network).  And it was and he surely should be nominated for Best Actor but in my opinion he shouldn’t win because as good as he was, Colin was better and had the more difficult role.

Geoffrey Rush will be nominated for Best Supporting Actor as well he should be;  I hope he wins. And certainly NOT to be overlooked is the cinematography, the lighting was so exquisitely natural you forget that it’s lighting.

Final Thoughts:  Guy Pearce was smooth and handsome as the Duke of Windsor, unfortunately he was completely obsessed  (as portrayed in this movie) with a woman of a questionable background so I no longer think of him as a hopeless romantic but rather a weak spoiled rich boy lacking in character and morals NOT to mention that although it was not greatly emphasized in the movie – he and his Duchess cavorted with the likes of Hitler and that certainly does not put him in any good light.  And as an added piece of reality, I had the good fortune to attend the Sotheby’s auction of  the estate of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor and from the look of his clothes he was not only a dandy, he was tiny one at that.