BEFORE: It's always a big day here at the Movie Year(s) when I get to cross a Best Picture winner off the list, there's no doubt about that. Linking from last night's film, Judi Dench was in a version of "The Importance of Being Earnest" with Colin Firth (last seen in "The English Patient")
THE PLOT: The story of King George VI of Britain, his impromptu ascension to the throne and the speech therapist who helped the unsure monarch become worthy of it.
AFTER: The focus falls tonight on the grandsons of Queen Victoria, and the very public way in which the throne of England changed twice in relatively rapid succession, when George V died, and Edward VIII then abdicated the throne to marry a divorced American woman. That story was also the focus of another film last year, "W.E.", which is not on my list. More on that later.
The fly in the ointment is that the soon-to-be king, Albert Frederick Arthur George, aka George VI, aka "Bertie", has a stammering problem, which is on track to become a staggering problem one he is asked to address the nation, and speak on these newfangled radio broadcasts. And he's tried every type of speech therapy available, so he's in desperate need of a maverick speech therapist who plays by his own rules, to succeed against long odds. And I wonder if the stuttering hides some kind of darker, hidden pain...
If I sound facetious, it's because I found this to be a bit by-the-numbers. While parts of the story are based on actual events, we know it's all in the presentation, right? It's form over content, and therein lies the problem, for me. Biopic? Check. Overcoming disability? Check. World War II? Check. It really was designed to appeal to the Oscar voters who vote with their guts rather than with their hearts. I'll wager that a fair amount of voters went with this film because they thought all the other voters would too, and who doesn't like to back a winning horse? Not to second-guess the Oscar voters, but was this REALLY the film you enjoyed the most in the whole year? Come on, be honest. By contrast, the film with a 2010 release date that score the highest on MY rating system was "Tron: Legacy", a film which garnered probably zero Oscar votes for Best Picture.
There's no question that the speech that King George is asked to give is important - it's a call to arms for World War II, and any stuttering or hesitation could be taken as lack of resolve, or worse yet, fear. But in showing us the back-story and the behind-the-scenes work done to allow the King to give the speech, again the focus is on form, not content. We're all listening to HOW he's delivering the speech, rather than what he's saying. Are they both important? The American equivalent would be something like Abe Lincoln overcoming a lisp to give the Gettysburg Address. (And here we see another big difference between U.K. and American films - instead, Hollywood is making "Abe Lincoln: Vampire Hunter". Make of that what you will.)
Form over content is an ongoing concern of mine, I realize it's easy for me to get caught up in the organization of my lists, so that the films themselves are occasionally like afterthoughts. With that said, I'm at something of a crossroads - where do I go from here? This could have been a good lead-in to WW2 films, but I failed to realize that, so they're scheduled for the week of July 4. The next logical step would be to watch "The Queen", since George VI is the father of Queen Elizabeth II, who appears here as a young princess.
However, I've peeked at the synopsis for that film - "After the death of Princess Diana, HRM Queen Elizabeth II struggles with her reaction to a sequence of events". That's it? The Queen feels bad? If you're looking for a symbol of the decline of the English monarchy, here it is - in a week, I've gone from Queen Elizabeth I fighting the Spanish Armada, to Elizabeth II feeling under the weather, what a sad state of affairs. I don't think I'll be going in that direction - but as each film tends to suggest two or three others, I've also got to decide about "W.E.", "The Young Victoria", and "The Other Boleyn Girl". Do I want to backtrack now, or follow-up on this topic later? Which is ultimately more important, form or content?
Also starring Geoffrey Rush (last seen in "Elizabeth: The Golden Age"), Helena Bonham Carter (last seen in "Alice in Wonderland"), Guy Pearce (last seen in "The Hurt Locker"), Derek Jacobi, Timothy Spall (last heard in "Alice in Wonderland"), Michael Gambon (last seen in "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1").
RATING: 6 out of 10 tongue-twisters
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