Review: 'The King's Speech'

ALISON ST. JOHN: I'm Alison St. John in for Maureen Cavanaugh. Well, it's film club of the air. And since it's the end of the year, and award season, we've got some top to which films to talk about. Not that all our in-house critics will necessarily like them, as always, I expect some heated debate. But the reviews that I've been reading suggest some good quality entertainment in the films that our critics have picked to review am so just before we start that list, let's talk about the latest news from the San Diego film critics, because Beth, and first of all, of course, I should remind our listeners who our three critics are because some of you may not remember even although they're familiar names to most of us. Beth Accomando, is KPBS's film critic, and author of the blog cinema junkie. Beth, great to have you here. So let's start now with the big films that we're gonna be talking about today, and the first one is the king's speech. And this year's nominations for the golden globe awards were announced just justice. And the King's Speech is leading the pack with seven nominations issue it's a British period drama about king George the sixth, and his struggles to over come a chronic stammer. Colin Firth plays the king, and Geoffrey Rush plays his speech therapist. He begins by asking the king what he should call him. [CLIP] ALISON ST. JOHN: Okay, is that any way to treat a king? Of all the films that we're talking about today, this one seems to be the most like Oscar bait. So Anders, what do you think? Is it Oscar bait? WRIGHT: It's certainly Oscar bait. I think that the best picture, when the Oscars role around issue there are gonna be two films that are really sort of at the top of the heap, and it will be this and the Social Network. I actually -- there are film things about this film that I actually really enjoyed and appreciated. Will Colin Firth and Geoffrey Rush are terrific together. But in terms of being Oscar bait, it's British, it's a period piece, and it's about royalty. Which are all things -- MARKS: If they could work the Holocaust in there, wow. WRIGHT: Yeah, exactly. ACCOMANDO: Sort of. It's the beginning of the war. MARKS: Forget about Social Network. Home run. WRIGHT: But actually, I also really thought that the biggest prospect was Tom hooper's direction. It's really lack luster and fairly limp you've got these two terrific actors, and you almost never seen them in the same frame, working off of each other. MARKS: When was the last time you sa somebody using a fish eye lens? That's all this guy does. [CHECK AUDIO] and he shot in some pretty impressive places. Will I think it's because the guy is an amateur. This is Ia master piece theatre made for TV movie with great performances, a great story, and as Anders said, really mediocre direction. ALISON ST. JOHN: So maybe he's appealing to the public's affection. Maybe he thinks they like the fish eye lens. ACCOMANDO: Well, no, the best I can say about their director is maybe he stays out of their way sometimes. [CHECK AUDIO] and the direction is just inn inspired. It does nothing to add to the film or to bring anything to it. But they are great actors. Some of of the exchanges they have are a lot of fun. ALISON ST. JOHN: Do you think there's something about the fact that there's this monarchy, but they're suffering from this very human problem, the stammering, and it arouses a certain sympathy in the viewer? WRIGHT: Absolutely, and I think much of that comes from how good Colin Firth is. Of he -- I'm of the mind, he should have won the best actor for a film last year, for a film called a single man. And he didn't, but I'm fairly sure that he will win it this year. ACCOMANDO: Because they always give thea, ward late. WRIGHT: Yeah. And he's very very good. He really does turn this suffering, shy man into a Congress who has -- who is really not in touch with his emotions at all, and is completely out of touch with his subjects and yet has to find a way to over come this terrible impediment, and to bond with someone who he considers to be beneath him. ACCOMANDO: And during a very difficult time critical in history, because it's right at the beginning of the war where he's going. And adding to that, it's not just a point in time when the war is about to begin, but it's a point in time when radio and the media are suddenly requiring a king to speak publicly, whereas 50 or a hundred years before that, he could have got ebb away with having a stammer and maybe not having to worry so much about it. WRIGHT: Stand up and look good and wave. ALISON ST. JOHN: It's so interesting that that happened right at a time that the British empire was crumbling. You've gotta almost sort of ask about the synchronicity of that. Do you think that that adds to thea appeal of the movie? WRIGHT: Yes, I think the part of the sort of intrigue of the film is that he was never supposed to become king at all. He basically took on the thrown when his brother abdicated. ACCOMANDO: And actually, that was another flaw in the film was guy pierce was badly cast as his brother Edward. It just did not work. WRIGHT: Just foppish. ACCOMANDO: Not even foppish. It just -- he -- first of all of course he was Australian, and it seemed very -- that seemed to add to the problems of the fact that his performance wasn't that good on top of it, and he just seemed wrong. His voice seemed like he was postdubbed or something afterwards. So there was this disconnect whenever he came on and was talking. ALISON ST. JOHN: So the strength of the movie seems to be the relationship between the king and his -- ACCOMANDO: Yeah. MARKS: But as Beth pointed out, they're never in the sim frame together. I don't understand why a director would do that. And the scenes with the two of them, that's the only reason for seeing this movie. ALISON ST. JOHN: Really. So you like their relationship. MARKS: I was waiting for a flash back in the beginning. In any other movie, you walk up to the microphone, open his mouth, and then dissolve to flash back. WRIGHT: Right. MARKS: And uses his stammer almost as a cool plot point, you be, a plot device to bring it back later on. After that, all hopes of film making are just out the window. ALISON ST. JOHN: Well, Scott, is there requesting wrong with an audience pleasing human drama about the human spirit over coming -- MARKS: If it's -- well, at this time of year, okay, I guess this film is happy, you have this and yogi bear, those are the only two frolic -- ordinary care to beingers too. No, I think there is something wrong, I mean, if you're gonna make a movie, make a movie, don't just sit there and finger paint. WRIGHT: You know, I think people are gonna hike this movie. I really do. And the sort of tragedy of it, is this could have been a great film. And instead, I think, it's good, it's fine. But it's not a great film. ACCOMANDO: The other thing about it is, it's getting all these awards too. It's like awarding it for bad film making of it's fine if people enjoy it and get a kick on the of the performances, and get a kick out of the script. ALISON ST. JOHN: It's the direction that you really -- ACCOMANDO: The direction was just -- ALISON ST. JOHN: Disappointing? MARKS: It's also just such a safe choice for the academy. Look at the black swan, I can't believe the academy is even watching black Juan. ALISON ST. JOHN: Now, Tom Hooper, the director this you're all dissing here. Many people might know him because he produced that HBO miniseries, John Adams which I personally thought was very well done. But do you think he works better perhaps on TV than on the big screen. ACCOMANDO: It's possible. ALISON ST. JOHN: Perhaps you didn't like that series? ACCOMANDO: I didn't quiet to see that series. So I don't know, I can't compare his direct from that to this. WRIGHT: Yeah, it's just -- I mean, notally, you really have to sort of look at every project on an individual bases. But you hook at this film, when you break it down into the various components that went into it, you can see the sort of things that are terrific. Of and you can see what isn't? ACCOMANDO: But he also directs it as if it's for TV which will play better on TV where you may have a much smaller screen but -- WRIGHT: Maybe he was thinking about DVDsales. ACCOMANDO: I don't know. ALISON ST. JOHN: There's another one of my favorite actresses on this, Helena Bonham Carter. How did she do as his wife? ACCOMANDO: It was refreshing. WRIGHT: She came up doing roles like this. ACCOMANDO: Yeah. Where she's grateful and charming and funny and interesting. ACCOMANDO: Merchant ivory film. WRIGHT: Yeah, and then sort of went off into the Tim Burton land. ACCOMANDO: Tim Burton land. WRIGHT: She's had, like, giant hair and crazy make up and bizarre -- she's been over the top for years. ALISON ST. JOHN: I couldn't help thinking about her role, of course in Harry Potter. WRIGHT: No, yeah, of course. ALISON ST. JOHN: It's very difficult to see her as anything but that witch. WRIGHT: And she was in Alice in Wonderland earlier. And stuff like that. And it often peoples like, wow, what happened to the Helena Bonham Carter that we all fell for so many years back. And she's back in this. ACCOMANDO: And she's back. And she's very good. ST. JOHN: Okay. Well, that's the King's Speech, and it opened this Friday in are theaters. We've gotta take a break, but we'll be back with our three critics, Beth Accomando, Scott Marks, and Anders Wright.