The King's Speech (2010)
I'm don't know what to call Hong Kong
but I do know that it shows up independently so howdy. Also hello to
new readers from Greece, Turkey, New Zealand, Algeria and Kuwait.
The King's Speech was nominated and won a butt load of awards so I
went into it with pretty high expectations.
The movie opened with a few lines of
text. I couldn't read them because I didn't have my glasses on. I
don't know who's fault that was (the movies or mine) but we aren't
off to a good start. First scene shows Firth (Prince Albert)
finishing up a speech at some public gathering. Now, I'm no great
public speaker. I usually talk too fast, get all out of breath and
it turns into a whole mess. I'm no Stuttering Stanley like Albert
though, he just sounds rough. I will say that his speeches are
broadcasted over radio's which I think are somewhat new at the time
so if it was me, I would totally be blaming those things.
He's married to the chick who played
the queen in the new Alice in Wonderland and is married to Tim
Burton. Usually I don't like her but I did in this. She tries to
find help for Albert and checks out a local speech therapist named
Lionel Logue (Geoffrey Rush). Not a fan of the way he spells his
Jeffrey. Her name is Princess Elizabeth although she tells Lionel
that their last names are Johnson so that they keep the speech
impediment on the down low. Lionel agrees to become his teacher.
A couple minutes of character
development before their first meeting take place. Lionel tries out
for a Shakespeare play but doesn't make it while Albert tells a
terrifying story to his two daughters. It's his delivery that makes
it creepy. Albert starts smoking because his doctor told him that
smoking is supposed to relax your throat. He must be a real butcher.
Lionel believes that Albert's problems are psychological and wants
him to open up so they can find the real cause of the problem but
Albert resists. He has some temper. Lionel asks him to just read
from a book out loud but Albert struggles even doing that. The
Prince is growing very impatient so Lionel asks him to try one last
thing, read from the book again while wearing headphones playing
music. Albert does it, thinks it is stupid and leaves. Lionel made
a recording of him reading while listening to the music and gives it
to Albert. You know that it sounds good but Bertie in his anger
storms off without listening to it.
He finally does listen to it and goes
back to Lionel because he needs results. We get a little montage as
they do a bunch of exercises like jaw stretching. Some of them seem
to help while others not so much. Albert's dad, King George V (the
second guy who played Dumbledore) gets sick and dies. Bummer. The
new king is Albert's older brother King Edward VIII (Guy Pearce). He
is a good speaker but has his own issues, mainly woman problems. He
is in love with this chick named Wallis (Wallace). Can't be a looker
with a name like that. The thing about Wallis is that she's been
divorced once and is about to be again. The Church in England kind
of frowns on that.
Meanwhile Albert goes back to see
Lionel again. He starts to open up a little bit about his rough
childhood. A nanny tortured him and didn't feed him then one of his
close brothers died. Also he was born a lefty and was forced to be a
righty. To me, that was the right move by his parents. I can't
trust leftys, sorry. Lionel can see that Bertie is going to be king
soon because Edward VIII is going to give up the throne to be with
Wallis (Wallace ew). He tries to build up a little confidence in
Albert but the Prince is scared and says mean things to Lionel like
bugger and whatever else Brits say.
One cold day (England looks cold 24/7)
Albert finally does become king. Could I use more
parenthesis(probably)? The guy who plays Churchill is the same dude
who played Wormtail in Harry Potter. There must not be a ton of good
British actors because only a few of them seem to be used in a bunch
of movies. Albert becomes King George VI and his first speech as
king sucks. He and Lionel are still broken up because of all the
hateful things Albert said. I wasn't on his characters side that
much during this sequence. The guy is not really keeping up with the
whole divine right ideal because I could rule a country better than
he is doing. He finally breaks down and cries, saying he's no king.
It took him getting that low to go back
and see Lionel. For some reason Logue apologizes to the king while
it should be the other way around but King's probably don't say sorry
a whole lot so it's OK. Lionel had been keeping the fact that's he's
teaching the King how to speak from his wife and there is a funny
scene where she is surprised to have royalty in her house. Also
check out Geoffrey Rush's nose. I actually wouldn't call it a nose,
his face has gotten a little droopy and it looks like a bag is
hanging off the front of his head where his snozz should be.
SPOILER TIME ALTHOUGH THIS ISNT REALLY
A HUGE ONE
Little by little, Albert has improved.
He's giving little speeches all over the place. When WWII starts he
is called in to give a nine minute speech and is quite scared. He
has Lionel brought in and they go into the recording room together.
Lionel is the only guy he lets in there with him, pretty special. He
gives the speech and does a pretty good job at it. His whole cabinet
treats him like he just won the war, not read three pages but I guess
it's just baby steps.
THE END
Favorite Scene : One I just mentioned,
it's when Lionel's wife comes back to her home only to see the King
and Queen are hanging out inside.
Memorable Lines : “Do you know any
jokes?...Timing isn't my strong suit”
“What's he saying? I don't know, but
he seems to be saying it rather well”(about Hitler)
“My physician's say it relaxes my
throats. They're idiots. They've all been knighted. Makes it
official then”
“You stammered on the W. Well I had
to throw it in there so they knew it was me”
Rating : Have to do 7.7 more Cadbury
eggs for Easter. I liked the movie. It was well shot and even
better acted. To me, there wasn't a whole lot of story here so for
them to make that into a good movie makes it more impressive. I know
a prince who can't talk becoming king sounds like it's a whole thing
but it is pretty simple and is the only real main storyline. I also
liked that, in America at least, they don't really teach about this
period of time in England. I took AP European History and a bunch of
other history classes and don't remember hearing about these kings.
One of Bertie's daughter becomes the current Queen Elizabeth I think.
Alternate Ending : I thought they
solved the King's speech problems when they played the music over his
talking. I guess it's more of a cover up than actually solving the
problem but it still seemed to work. I would've just stuck with
that.
What I would do if I was the main
character: I don't know politics at all but doesn't the president
have a spokesman that does most of his press interviews? I would
hire a guy to do all of my speaking. If anyone says that not saying
my own speeches makes me weak, have them killed. Easy.
What happens in the sequel : I'm
guessing the throne loses most of it's power. There is some bombing
and King George the VI goes through some severe emotional trauma. He
regains the ability to speak clearly but starts having affairs all
over the place. Breaks laws and gets in trouble. The King's Speech
2: The King's Impeach. Box office Gold
First Speech was a struggle
The old headphone trick
Practice Yelling
Oh hey guys, what's up?
I like a chick named Wallis
King Charles V(Dumbledore)
Churchill(Wormtail)
(All kinged up)
thththththth that's all folks.
Butts.
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