Friday, January 14, 2011

Movie Review - The Kings Speech

As my regular reader will have surmised our choice of movie typically involves a compromise between myself and the slumbering goddess I'm delighted to call my lovely wife. This week the choice was very much her ladyship's call, her fondness for Colin Firth based apparently on his ability to act his way out of a pond, myself, well I don't find Mr Firth thigh-quiveringly attractive but this is a film that's had very good reviews and sometimes it's good to take the advice of other, lesser, film critics.

The story of the stammering Duke of York being thrust into the role of king just as the wireless becomes the principal method of communication is an interesting one and much has been made of the development of the friendship between the antipodean voice coach played with delicate and subtle skill by Geoffrey Rush and the troubled princeling, a role which seems likely to generate a (well-earned) Oscar for the aforementioned damp Darcy.

Personally I found their relationship, as portrayed, amusing, nicely judged, predictable but engaging, however, for me, the real pleasure of the film was the nice observation of the distance between royalty and the real world, which still seems to me to be a huge gulf despite the British public's dilemma around the diminishing desire to maintain the unique mystique of the monarchy and the increasing inability of anyone in the public eye to maintain any kind of real privacy in the face of information overload, persistent public prying and the bundling of all things royal into the increasingly poorly-named cult of celebrity.

Right, enough ranting, back to the film, good things, a great sense of the history, the look and feel of the period, the manners, the language and the sense of a country on the cusp of dramatic and drastic change. A delight to see Helena Bonham-Carte playing someone who isn't screaming and cackling, a lovely performance delivered with lightness and humour. bad things, well nothing really.

So to sum up, it was a packed cinema, who all appreciated a very fine film, as did her ladyship and as did I.
I'd recommend it to all my lovely readership.

A regal p'p'p'p'poem in the Haiku style

As hesitance ends
to find a cure, and a friend
For competent king

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