The King’s Speech
(Starring Colin Firth, Geoffrey Rush, Helena Bonham Carter)
It’s strange to think that so much faith was once put into the vocal abilities of heads of state. If a ruler didn’t have a radio voice, the country was doomed. It’s the same today with well-spoken, TV-friendly politicians, though.
Firth expertly plays the man who took the throne as King George VI when his brother abdicated to wed an American divorcee. The problem was that WWII was looming, and King George had a painful, embarrassing stammer. In comes and unorthodox Australian speech therapist, Rush, to fix the king in the same way Dr. Willis fixed the crazed King George III of lunacy in the late 1700s.
In perfect Merchant-Ivory style, director Tom Hooper counters the narrow, high domiciles of the Royal Court with the scrubby, decomposing flats of the poor therapist. All three leads give outstanding performances, but Firth shines with his silences, a skill that got him nominated for last year’s A Single Man.
The King’s Speech is a charming film, even if it expertly skims over world events to concentrate on the monarch, his lovely and patient wife (Bonham Cater), and the therapist who would save him from public humiliation. There is no extensive look at Britain’s post-WWI poverty or the evils of Hitler. However, here is a smaller film with wonderful, quiet and oftentimes-funny performances about how a common British subject helped a scared man become the ruler his country so desperately needed.
Country Strong
(Starring Gwyneth Paltrow, Tim McGraw, Garrett Hedlund, Leighton Meester)
Much whoopee has been made over this, Gwyneth’s re-entry into the limelight. In fact, Paltrow can sing, as her work at the 2010 Country Music Awards and a recent episode of Glee further proves. Sadly, her voice is bolstering Country Strong, a whiny soap opera.
Paltrow is a mega-shiny C&W star who got drunk and fell off a stage at a Dallas concert. That doesn’t stop manager-hubby McGraw from pulling Paltrow out of rehab a month early to stage a mini comeback tour ending on the same fateful stage in Dallas. Paltrow insists they bring along handsome Hedlund (Tron: Legacy), a promising small-town troubadour. McGraw wants to haul around his own eye candy, Barbie doll Meester.
So, there are affairs all over the ol’ homestead! There’s also drinking and drugging, infidelities and heartache. All that’s missing in this boot-scootin’ melodrama is a truck getting repossessed and a dog running away. And it lacks a succinct plot and interesting people—those little nuggets.
Despite the hammy story, the music is pretty, if not spectacular. All three singers have great voices. Hedlund is especially charming, with his big blue eyes, his rich baritone and his sexy swagger.
A subtler, less exaggerated plot would have saved this flick. Instead, we’re set adrift in a thematic mash-up of every wince-inducing country song ever crooned. It enough to make you want to get drunk and shoot up some jukeboxes.
The Green Hornet
(Starring Seth Rogen, Jay Chou, Christophe Waltz, Cameron Diaz. Tom Wilkinson)
There’s a certain reckless, off-the-cuff feeling to The Green Hornet that is both its strongest asset and it’s greatest weakness. Director Michel Gondry (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Be Kind Rewind) is famous for his DIY approach, which works best in the wonky action sequences of this big budget reboot of the 1930s radio program. What doesn’t fly are the indulgent, sexist and vacillating characters beating mildly comic scenes to death via improv.
Rogen is the spoiled rich son of a self-made newspaper millionaire, Wilkinson. When daddy kicks the bucket, due to a bee sting, Rogen has some choices to make. Should he leave his property-damaging, party boy life to report on the criminal underside of L.A.? Rogen decides to keep both aspects, marrying the two as a dangerous vigilante bent on destroying mob boss Waltz (who won an Oscar for Inglorious Basterds).
Through it all, Rogen sexually harasses his secretary (the supremely underutilized Diaz) and abuses his right-hand man Kato (Chou). Rogen is funny, but his long comic rants seem like he was allowed to goof around without an editor. Sadly, this leeway creates a juvenile, uninteresting character.
That being said, Waltz is a funny self-doubting villain. Also, the flick’s special effects sequences are messy and unrealistic, the fight scenes are stupid and joyful, and the car chases are delightfully far-fetched. Watch The Green Hornet for the action; when Rogen starts his standup, go get popcorn.
