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Sometimes men didn't have a voice either, you know? A-hahaha! But he found his voice. So that's good. I personally didn't think that it was an absolutely outstanding movie, but I thought that it was a good movie, without any major flaws.
And it is kinda cool. Sometimes this sort of thing makes me wish that I were British--it's good to have a king. And, although it was interesting to have such an interesting portrait of George VI, as well as cameos for his dad George V, the ubiquitous Churchill--to exclude *him* you have to put it before 1874 or after 1965, I'm telling you--and an interesting sidelong glance at the whole mess of 1936, if you know what I mean. ("Don't I have any rights?" "Many privileges--it's not the same thing." Then again, I've seen at least one interpretation of those two--in "Any Human Heart"--where they came off very badly, and very plausibly too. I'm never quite sure *what* to think about 1936....)
On the other hand, I don't enjoy all that the way I used to, and I don't really like seeing and hearing all the hardboiled-ness of the....30s, actually, or, in this case, of the old Greek education as well. And, as someone who's gone from being a history student to someone who doesn't want to hear about anything that happened before....Seinfeld, say....well, in general I like to dismiss the entire past millennium with an artful flick of my wrist. But, you know, that's *entirely* subjective....and the fact that there's still really nothing for me to find fault with in what they did, must surely speak to how good a job they did at what they set out to do.
And, you know, I keep telling this boring little story, but, although I have seen the movie *now*, and I did like it, at the time I passed it up to go see "Black Swan" (*with Natalie Portman*) instead. I guess....I just didn't want to listen to two boys talk with each other for the whole thing, I guess. NOT because there's anything *wrong* with that--and, you know, it's good to see that old WSC, as I call him, didn't give *all* the speeches, especially before he was PM, obviously, and obviously the respect that the country had for its King was unique, and not something that Winston could ever have...especially since he was basically always a crazy old man, even when he was young, ha! ^^ But, you know, given the choice, I would still choose the insecure young lady dancer with the intelligent dissolute French dancing instructor over the stuttering smothered British king and his independent expert Australian voice coach. Although I actually did like the coach--it's nice to see a guy like that who can think for himself--and the king who had to overcome crappy circumstances is a good story. (And, again, sometimes everything about monarchy is vaguely reminiscent of Grimm's Fairy Tales--at its best, at least.) But....given the choice, I'd still rather watch Natalie Portman, rather than two boys. Again, NOT that there was anything at *all* wrong with them....*but*, I just don't like to feel....well, *starved* really. I guess it's because I'm a little French myself, despite my respect for (and moderate amount of knowledge about) the British monarchy. ;)
I suppose I must be boring some of you to tears, since this is all about myself....I wonder if George V ever had to give a good speech? He seems like he would've been good at it.
Anyway, just so you don't throw stones at me, I'll say something good about the movie for real--when the Australian guy tells the king that (SPOILER! Hahaha) no, he doesn't have any *credentials*, and he hadn't even pretended to have any--"There are no letters next to my name."
Ah, that was good, *good*--"There are no letters next to my name."
It must have been quite a thing to say, back then, back when everything had to be Greek, to be any good....but even today, in this time of frantic credentialization, when *everyone* is scrambling to get as many letters next to their name as they possibly can....I don't know, it's just a very *brave* thing to say--"There are no letters next to my name."
And, you know, just basically, overall I just thought it was solidly good, even though I didn't think that it was *absolutely* the best thing ever.
(Although I suppose it beats listening to my mom chatter and whine at the dog, if that's what you mean....Oh, I'm cruel!)
Anyway.
(8/10)
