Plot: Tells the story of the man who became King George VI, the father of Queen Elizabeth II. After his brother abdicates, George ('Bertie') reluctantly assumes the throne. Plagued by a dreaded stammer and considered unfit to be king, Bertie engages the help of an unorthodox speech therapist named Lionel Logue. Through a set of unexpected techniques, and as a result of an unlikely friendship, Bertie is able to find his voice and boldly lead the country through war. via
Matt's Rating: A
Nicole's Rating: A
Matt: Even though I haven't seen Social Network yet, this is the best movie I've seen this year. It's only the second Colin firth movie I've seen but he is quickly climbing my list of modern day great actors.
Nicole: First being, Bridget Jones?
M: Yup.well I saw Pride and Prejudice a while back.
N: Wait, and you've seen Love Actually ("I hate Uncle Jamie!")
M: Never the whole thing
N: Oh. But still. He's climbing. Good stuff. We know I love him. All of him. Even when he's stuttering King George. I don't care.
M: I believe its stammering
N: Okay, whatever. PC.
M: Is there a difference??
N: No idea.
M: Anyway. The movie was great - characters, writing, cinematography, acting, everything. And the story was very compelling for such a simple premise, that's impressive.
N: I mean, there isn't much more I can say except - I agree. I thought everyone in this movie was amazing. Colin Firth, Helena Bonham Crazy... I mean, Carter. (Seriously, love her) Geoffrey Rush. And it seemed to remain true to history/culture/whatever else. Cinematography - yes. So many shots were SO BEAUTIFUL. Even when they were sitting in that dingy room - it still looked gorgeous.
M: Yes. I mean it's just such a smart film. Which is what I loved about it.
N: Colin Firth won the Globe, fyi.
M: I know and Bale did, too. Social Network took home best picture. But it's impressive that Firth had to master a stammer, voice, and mannerisms of a person and he fuckin NAILED it. I'm also a sucker for a good historical piece.
N: Yeah, he did! That's my sexy, Firth!
M: Even with the stammer, sexy?
N: Isn't that what I said like, five minutes ago!? Pay attention!
M: SORRY!
N: Favorite scene? Just because I know we both had them - scenes that we found really moving...
M: The one where he talks about the nanny. I don't want to give much away, but the whole singing thing got to me. As a whole it just had so many smart and moving moments. Very well executed. And you? (Note from Nicole: singing his thoughts along to the tune of a popular song is one of the treatments.)
N: For me it was both he (Firth) and Lionel (Rush) were in the church fighting over whether or not taking these speech lessons and being the king was something Firth could do. And he shouts over Rush - "I have a voice!" I just loved that. I really loved the two of the them together - I loved that the movie was really about the two of them. Their friendship. How the courage the one was lacking was found in the encouragement and belief of the other. Loved it. So what are you going to give it?
M: My one gripe would be that I would have liked to see more of Rush's subplot. I don't think they explored that and used it as much as they could have. However, besides that the movie was great. I'm going to give it an A.
N: Where, I thought there was of Rush's subplot was too much and that what they had was superfluous, which is why I am also giving it an A. That's probably absolute proof that you can never make anybody happy. So just do it the way you want to...
M: Agreed. Real quick, I often find myself finding a reason to not give a movie an A, just because of how good a movie needs to be to get an A. I don't want it to be easy. I'm trying to do that here but as I run through each scene in my head - every one served a purpose, which is the sign of great film making. Ok, I'm done.
No comments:
Post a Comment