The Kings Speech (2010)

The Kings Speech should be the perfect example of what we make best in the UK.

It has a great cast and a solid director, Tom Hooper (who directed the superlative The Damned United, a football film which thankfully features very little football.) I think the difference in the British biopic from the American biopic, is levity.

In things like Ray or Ali or Walk The Line, even when the hero develops or encounters personal problems they're still held in this breadth of greatness, that it feels like it's just a blip in their development, they'll get over it. When I think about British fare like 24Hour Party People or Control or The Damned United, the people in those films are indomitably likeable but hardly seem like their about to achieve anything. They don't even seem to work very hard, they're just... doing what they do. 

The thing is... no film can live up to the sort of annual acclaim (read: hype) that is levelled on 'Oscar' films but I'd heard nothing negative about this film. When I first attempted to see this film, the screening was sold out. I mean when was the last time, you ever saw that? On a Sunday night. Day after New Years. So you'll have to pardon the high expectations one had for The Kings Speech. 

The truth is it's not a horrible film. Not boring. Very light and entertaining. But is it on the same level, in this 2010/11 awards season as that, he says thumbing at 127 Hours? Not really.

I'm being harsh. It does a lot right, it's well written-well acted. It's just... I don't know if you saw A Single Man but you should watch A Single Man because it taught me to love certified National Treasure, Colin Firth. A Single Man is like Pride & Prejudice for guys... if it was about Darcy as an older-er man, after Lizzy Bennett had died.

And Lizzy Bennett was a man. (Don't worry, Lizzy Bennett's not dead. She's in The Kings Speech.) 

Anyway, look if you're gonna give Firth an Oscar, you should have given it to him for that not this. 
Also Guy Pearce is in this as, King Whoever-what-abdicated. Now i like Guy Pearce as much as the next guy- he's was brilliant in LA Confidential but as Colin Firth's older brother? It was a bit of a shark-jump for me. I loved that halfway thru this film, when i was trying to figure out how far away this Royal Family fed into today's Royal Family, I realised Helena Bonham Carter was playing other 'national treasure'- The Queen Mother! (RIP.)

I guess the crux of my beef is I just don't know why this material deserved to be a film over a television drama. Like if you or I saw this on Channel 4 or BBC1, we'd be like 'OMGZ, did you see The Kings Speech- this is totes what i pays my licence feez for.' And we still can, because i don't feel theres any sense of urgency to see The Kings Speech before it arrives on the small screen...

I watched The Kings Speech (2010) at the cinema.
My 2011 in Movies will return with Valhalla Rising (2009)...