Now that Christmas is over there seems to be a run of films coming up that I actually look forward to seeing and the first of these was 'The King's Speech'. Although the girls were less than enthused they dutifully came along and I think, when the final credits rolled, even they had to admit it was a 'good film'.
In fact I thought it was excellent. I won't bore you with a plot synopsis, suffice it to say that the script was terrific and was, I think' a masterclass in 'show don't tell'. The temptation must have been to lard on the exposition (especially in these history-lite days of school) but apart from a brief scene-setter at the beginning this was handled much more subtly as part of the action. For example, the Queen Mother's (a great performance by Helena Bonham-Carter, and I'm usually not a fan) hatred of Wallis Simpson was neatly demonstrated in the party scene and the drab economic conditions of the time by a wonderful recreation of a smog-bound London.
Much has been made of Colin Firth's performance and he is bloody good - he has the most expressive eyes in all of modern cinema - but the whole cast was outstanding, notably Geoffrey Rush and Guy Pearce.
All-in-all a couple of hours well spent. The other interesting thing being that Burton cinema was fuller than I've ever seen it: if you build a decent script they will come.
Now is True Grit and Black Swan are as good....
Rees Family Rating: 9.0/10.0
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True Grit was good. I don't like westerns as a rule but I enjoyed it. It was quite realistic. The dialog was spot on for the time. They didn't just dress them in period clothes and have them speaking in modern language. If you like revenge tales with real, flawed characters, you'll enjoy True Grit!
ReplyDeleteI remember the John Wayne original and wasn't too enamoured, but the early buzz is that the remake out-Grits the first. And anyway I'm a closet Western freak...High Noon is up there in my all-time Top Ten.
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