The King's Speech - Movie of the Year?

There is no doubt in mind that the King's speech is the best film of the year, but then, on the 15th of January, that would not be a particularly hard achievement, However there really would need to be a good a film to take this accolade later on.

The film is based on the true story (It has a surprising amount of historical accuracy for a movie) of Price Albert, The Duke of York (Later King George VI) and his relationship with an irreverent Australian Speech therapist Lionel Logue. The story displays perfectly the internal struggle that The Duke of York goes through as he juxtapositions his annoyance at the perceived lack of respect with his desperation to solve his long term speech impediment.

The film stars Colin Firth as Prince Albert/King George in a performance that has been tipped to receive an Oscar nomination and I think there would be something wrong with the academy members if he doesn't. He successfully manages to fill a stammer with as much edge of your seat nervousness as the best psychological thriller as you are literally pleading with him to get the words out. Firth shows a great deal of different parts of the Kings personality as he is often flits from Anger to melancholy to vulnerable but makes him inherently likable. Whilst Geoffry Rush is wonderfully cast as the failed actor turned speech therapist, he sits passively as the King rants at him and has many calming mannerisms that sit well against the uptight royal, this film is at it's heart a film about overcoming adversity, but it would be a very boring watch without the great buddy chemistry produced by the main two characters.

The supporting cast do not let this film down either with Helena Bonham Carter in great form as Queen Elizabeth (The Queen Mother) sitting helplessly by as her husband struggles with his duties. Mike from Neighbours (Guy Pearce) plays the fun loving Edward VIII whose Abdication caused George the VI to take the throne, he plays a much more sympathetic figure than a lot of portrayals, and his Nazi sympathies are played down, but he manages to portray the King's struggle.

The only inaccuracy that bugged me was that it was suggested that Prince Albert chose the name George as Albert seemed too German where as in fact it was King Edward VII (Also called Albert) who decided that no other monarch should ever be called King Albert in reverence to his father Prince Albert.

Harry Potter, The Deathly Hallows and the badly managed Plot

This week we went to see Harry Potter and the deathly hallows part one. I have to admit that I read the book simply as I had read all of the others, it is often said that the books become ever darker as the series continues however I would probably say that it felt more bogged down as the series continued and what is often considered depth is in fact simply over populated plot strings. This, for me, all culminated in a very, the best word I can think of here is boring, 1st half of the final book. This first half in my opinion should have been left out altogether in the movie (it could have been handled better with a five minute background scene.) Instead the fear of the ending of one, if not the, highest earning, franchises made them see fit to make it a stand alone movie.

The film starts with an overly active first set piece in which they rescue Harry and are attacked by the Death Eaters - Always reminds me of a gang of 12 year old wanna be gangsters - It then descends into a seemingly endless set up of staring, moping and sulking which seems to last endlessly and use up considerable amounts of the good will towards these characters who have been the main stay of English Cinema for the best part of a decade.

There are a couple of cringe worthy scenes, not least an impromptu, in appropriate and untimely dance sequence between Harry and Hermione which was as ungainly in it's delivery as it was superfluous to the plot. The plot is overly twisted and convoluted whilst at the same time being shallow to the point of confusing what is going on, There are so many quests all happening at once with the search for the Horcruxes that contain the soul of Voldemort as well as details of the Deathly Hallows - three magical instruments that can give the owner the power over death itself - however these details seem to be thrown in at the last minute to justify the films title, finally in case the search for these 8 items was not enough to confuse they decide the flow of the narrative is best served by throwing in a search for the Sword of Griffindor!

There are of cause some very good performances, after all the main protagonists have had 7 years experience and Helena Bonam Carter always gives a great performance as the demented Bellatrix.

Still I am happy to say that I infinitely preferred the second half of the book to the first so perhaps we may find that splitting it into two halves will leave a really great movie to close out the series, this one however in set ups for a final showstopper this movie was more Matrix Reloaded than Empire Strikes Back.