"I have a right to be heard. I have a voice!"
I have been putting off this review for a few weeks for one simple reason: I'm not very good at writing positive reviews, and I think it really shows. I've written maybe one positive review ever, and it's considerably shorter than my other reviews. As I've said before, I find it much easier to rant about something's bad points than to talk about its merits, and that includes my own work. But I decided that I would get nowhere just writing what I find easy, so without further delay, let's get on to the review at hand: The King's Speech.
When I went to the theatre, I had no idea I would be watching this film. In fact, having heard of it I expressed no real desire to watch it; I didn't even know what it was about (beyond, you know, the King making a speech...), but the friend I was with suggested it when we found that couldn't watch the film we wanted to see in 2D (neither of us like watching films in 3D, something which I will cover in due time). I went into the film blind, which I admit is not the best way to watch a film you will later be reviewing but, well, I hadn't planned on reviewing it when I first sat in that seat.
I will start with the first thing I noticed, in the very first scene; the film looks amazing. The cinematography was simple, but very pleasing to the eye and the use of lighting and colours was, if not striking, fairly attractive. I'm not especially knowledgeable in this area, so I won't go on too much, I just thought it was worth mentioning.
I suppose I should bring this up earlier rather than later because there isn't much point in delaying it; Colin Firth's performance in this film was amazing. From the very first line I was drawn in, and he made the character so sympathetic, so human, and so relatable, especially considering he is royalty. Obviously the script played an enormous role in the fleshing out of the character, but Firth put on the finishing touches and made Bertie's character so heart-breakingly real. There was one quiet, poignant scene towards the halfway point that just took my breath away; without wanting to give away too much, I'll just say this: I never would have thought hearing a man singing his hardships to the tune of 'Swanee River' could bring tears to my eyes, but I would honestly be surprised if I was the only one.
Here is another point I will go over quite briefly, as this is the embarrassing moment when I admit that my knowledge of history is frankly laughable. I won't go too far into my ignorance because again: embarrassing, but I will say that I accepted everything I saw in the film as being at least somewhat based on true historical events, and as far as I can understand, it was, if condensed so it would fit into a two hour film. I will also admit that I never usually watch what I would call 'historical films', mainly because history isn't something I'm hugely interested in, but The King's Speech has made me seriously consider giving more of them a try.
Now I'll go on to how the film managed to surprise me, not with the plot (for people who do know the history, the storyline could not have possibly surprised them) but with its use of humour. I honestly was not expecting to laugh when I saw the film's poster and when my friend gave me a very brief idea of the premise, but I did get not only a giggle or two, but there were a few moments when I genuinely laughed out loud. Geoffrey Rush's performance as Lionel Logue is delightfully quick, sarcastic and lively; the gall with which he speaks to the Prince, and later the King, was hilarious at times, and the fact that he didn't seem to care just made me enjoy the character more. Not to mention Helena Bonham Carter's Elizabeth is both tender and loving, and charmingly funny.
The only complaint I have is that I highly suspect the film of doing what's known as 'Oscar Baiting', that is, making a film about an important or sensitive subject, so that it has emotional appeal and will hopefully win a lot of awards. Despite this, I think the film, and its actors, earned all of the awards they got. Even if the film was written only to win awards (which I doubt), it was written in a way so that it didn't seem forced or obvious; I didn't ever think to myself; 'this scene is obviously just to get the actor an award'; every scene that tugged at the heartstrings had a reason to be there, and they never felt intrusive or contrived. It was a genuinely moving and inspirational film, and I cannot recommend it highly enough.
There, I suppose that wasn't so hard after all. Only now I have to watch or read something truly terrible to fill my Reviewer's Rage quota. Maybe I should give that new Brighton Rock film a watch...
"Surely a prince's brain knows what its mouth is doing?"
"You're not well acquainted with princes, are you?"
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