Review of The King's Speech

"The King's Speech" is the best film of 2010, simple as that.
Classic, rousing entertainment loaded with both humor and poignancy, the film feels like a throwback in many ways.
It's "Rocky" with elocution instead of fists. It's "The Queen" with laughs. It's one of those dreary films about repressed Brits, except with a happy ending.
And yet it's also a wonderfully brilliant meditation on the nature of friendship and responsibility, on social stature and self-imprisonment, and on man's drive to improve, thrive, excel.
Colin Firth stars as the eventual King George VI, second in line to the British throne as the film begins in the '30s. Even though he's respected, brave and bright, Bertie — as he's known to his few intimates — has a terrible stammer that's hugely awkward in public moments.
Radio and amplification have made speaking a large new part of royal and political life, and Europe is being stirred up by two literally hysterically good speakers: Hitler and Mussolini. Shudder to think what will happen if Bertie becomes the speaking voice of England.
And, of course, that's what happens when Bertie's party boy brother Edward (Guy Pearce) abdicates the throne to marry his American mistress.
Luckily, Bertie's wife (Helena Bonham Carter) sees such a day approaching and hooks up Bertie with an eccentric Australian speech therapist, Lionel Logue (Geoffrey Rush).
At first, the variance in social status is too great for Bertie to bear; he has little experience dealing with commoners, and especially not one who demands equal footing. But eventually Bertie comes to trust Logue; they even become friends as Logue tries to uncover the roots of Bertie's stammer.
Friendship doesn't come easy to a man who's been addressed as "Your Royal Highness" all his life. But Bertie and Logue push on — for the good of England and the good of their own two souls.
All of this might seem — and certainly could have been — fairly stiff stuff. But director Tom Hooper ("The Damned United") and veteran writer David Seidler (who has wrestled with a stammer) have infused the film with so many funny spots — from Bertie's witty self-deprecations to Logue's tongue tricks to Bonham Carter's dry observations — that the film is every bit as comic as it is dramatic.
One comic bit involves Bertie spitting out a slew of swear words as a means of breaking through the stammer. Watching the rigidly proper Bertie explode this way is hilarious, but the humorless rigidly proper Motion Picture Association slapped an R rating on the film as a result, which is outright stupid because otherwise "The King's Speech" may be the most wholesome film of the year.
The acting in this film — well, really, just about everything in this film from wallpaper to costuming — is superb.
The building of the relationship between the relaxed but passionate Logue and the near-stifled Bertie is so natural you feel in the story with them; and the love between Bertie and his wife somehow transcends social strictures.
Firth and Rush are shoo-in Oscar nominees, as should be Bonham Carter, and the film will be battling with "The Social Network" for best picture honors.
No matter what, the audience wins big with "The King's Speech" as the film hits all the right notes on the way to its triumphant finale.
Well done, all. Seriously — well done.

Ten best films of 2010

The year's 10 best films, some runners-up and some fudging:
1. "The King's Speech"(Directed by Tom Hooper) Plain outstanding entertainment, put together beautifully, wonderfully acted, inspirational and rousing. Don't you hate the British for making it look so easy?
2. "Winter's Bone"(Debra Granik) Who the heck is Jennifer Lawrence? Her portrayal of an Ozark mountain teen trying to hold her family together despite horror-show relatives and conditions is flawless; you never see her acting for a minute. Great ensemble work as well.
3. "The Fighter"(David O. Russell) This story of a fighter dealing with his massively dysfunctional family managed to be funny, inspirational and cutting all at once, with great performances from Mark Wahlberg, Melissa Leo, Christian Bale and Amy Adams.
4. "Black Swan"(Darren Aronofsky) Natalie Portman soars and falls in this mad, exhilarating and horrifying portrait of a ballerina driven to distraction by her own obsession with perfection. A crazy beautiful collision of clichés and creativity.
5. "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" trilogy (Niels Arden Oplev; Daniel Alfredson) Noomi Rapace brought the extraordinary character of Lisbeth Salander — punk hacker, emotional ruin, warrior techno princess — to brilliant, chilling life in three Swedish films released in succession here this year.
6. "Catfish"/"Exit Through the Gift Shop" (Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman; Banksy) These two "documentaries" — about a Facebook love affair and street art gone commercial — brought the entire concept of documentaries and realistic cinema into question while being completely entertaining.
7. "Toy Story 3"/"Tangled" (Lee Unkrich/Nathan Greno and Byron Howard) What an incredible year for animation ("Despicable Me" and "How to Train Your Dragon" were no slouches either). Pixar hit it out of the park again with "Toy Story," while Disney finally returned to "Little Mermaid" quality with a spin on the Rapunzel story.
8. " 127 Hours" (Danny Boyle) Boyle has perfected a particularly modern and energetic style that he applied to the harrowing story of a man who had to amputate his own arm to survive in the wilderness. A triumphant performance from James Franco.
9. "Let Me In" (Matt Reeves) Reeves' adaptation of a Norwegian vampire film actually improved on the very good original, in large part thanks to splendid performances by the scary-good Chloe Moretz and Kodi Smit-McPhee. Not even sure I gave it an A originally, but it grows on you something fierce.
10. "Greenberg" (Noah Baumbach) This study in grown-up adolescence was good when Ben Stiller was on screen as the itchy-neurotic title character; it was great when Greta Gerwig's natural effervescence was added to the acid mix.
Also, in no particular order: "Fish Tank" ... "The Kids are All Right" ... "The Ghost Writer" ... "Tiny Furniture" ... "Splice" ... "I Am Love" ... "Shutter Island "... "Blue Valentine" (hasn't yet opened locally) ... "Inception" ... "Scott Pilgrim vs. the World"

Review of "127 Hours"

While it is undeniably the best feel-good movie ever about self-amputation, "127 Hours" can also give you a serious case of the willies.

Directed and co-written by Danny Boyle ("Slumdog Millionaire") in a style that travels from ecstatic to nerve-wracking and back, this is a film about perseverance, strength and the importance of always letting people know where you're going.

But it's also a film about a guy who has to cut off his own arm with a dull knife to survive, and even though that process only takes up about five minutes of the film, it is a devastatingly intense five minutes.

Some people have fainted during the scene; others have carried it in their heads for days afterward. So be forewarned: The sound of a guy breaking his own bones to hack at his arm can linger.

That said, "127 Hours" is, for the most part, a celebration of the human spirit, that spirit in this case belonging to one Aron Ralston (actor James Franco, sure to win a best actor Oscar nomination).

Ralston is a real-life outdoors type who loves to bike and hike in remote mountainous terrain. "127 Hours" tells the story of one such adventure that went terribly wrong.

He never told anyone where he was going. He couldn't find his knife, so he set out with only a multi-use tool with a dull blade. And he ended up acting as his own ER doctor.

At first Ralston is having a blast. He runs into two comely female hikers (Amber Tamblyn and Kate Mara) and leads them to an exotic underground pond and great fun is had. Boyle lets you see why Ralston adores nature.

But then Ralston heads off on his own and while crossing a crevice a rock slips; he falls down, and at the end he is trapped in a long, thin cavern, his right arm pinned hopelessly beneath a boulder.

Cool-headed, Ralston lays out his resources and plots to survive. But no matter what, he's trapped by a crushed arm in a hole in the middle of nowhere.

This obviously has the potential to become dramatically stagnant, but Boyle and Franco manage to make it entertaining. With his eternal likability and big goof attitude, Franco keeps Ralston appealing at all times, and Boyle and co-writer Simon Beaufoy offer diversions in the forms of small battles, video camera hijinks and flashbacks.

Just as things threaten to become just a bit too hallucinatory, Ralston realizes what he must do.

"127 Hours" has little on its mind beyond standing as testament to the will to survive. This is a case of man against nature, and as always, nature wins easily.

But Franco embodies that survival instinct with such mellow-dude cool, and Boyle celebrates it with such flash-dash cinematic spirit, that such a brave primal instinct suddenly seems still possible in our spoiled modern times.

"127 Hours" seems to believe that beneath it all, we remain strong. There's great optimism in this tragedy, and somehow great hope.

Review of "Unstoppable"

There's a gut-level simplicity to "Unstoppable" that works despite all its clichés.

This is the story of a train without anyone at the controls, speeding toward civilization carrying tons of explosives and poisonous gas, destined to teeter and crash when it comes to one particularly sharp curve. When it goes, the destruction will be massive. It's like watching a bomb tick down — as the bomb is speeding right at your face.

It helps mightily, of course, that director Tony Scott ("Top Gun," "Crimson Tide") knows how to stage this stuff better than just about anybody. His dashing cameras — the guy loves to swirl around his subjects — turn the train into a sort of rampaging metal dinosaur, snorting steam, glinting madly in the sun. Scott is working with real-world feel here — computer gimmickry seems kept to a minimum — and the visceral impact is impressive.

Unfortunately, the human drama that plays out against this scenario is pretty standard fare — unlikely heroes, uncaring corporate monster, shouting in the control room, last minute gymnastics, etc.

But hey, it's an action movie; and when it comes to gritty thrills, "Unstoppable" delivers.

Denzel Washington stars as grizzled veteran train engineer Frank Barnes who's teamed up with comparative rookie train conductor Will Colson (Chris Pine) one day for what looks to be a mundane series of stops adding and dropping cars in rural Pennsylvania.

Little do they know that through some lazy mishaps at a nearby station, a half-mile-long train packing the equivalent of a nuclear payload has started shooting down the track right at them, with no one able to stop it.

Frank decides they should chase it and try to slow it down.

The corporate honcho in charge of everything (Kevin Dunn) tells them to back off; they're going to derail the train before it gets to a population center. But our heroes ignore his threats, fearing — correctly — that they won't be able to pull off the derailing.

So you've got one speeding train chasing another, hoping to do something before it's too late.

Now, of course, Frank and Will are going to end up sharing their private stories with one another as their train hurtles toward likely oblivion. And of course they're going to form a very special bond.

That's how things go in films like this. You're going to hear about Frank's grown daughters and Will's domestic problems. It's unavoidable, just like the big finish ending.

But Scott keeps the action cranking at such a steady pace it doesn't matter how familiar the dramatic structure is. That train keeps on coming and it's about to blow one big hole in the world.

This is the fifth film Washington and Scott have made together (the last was "The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3"), and it may be their best since they first bonded over "Crimson Tide" in 1995.

They usually deliver polished Hollywood thrillers, but there's something particularly elemental and fierce about "Unstoppable."

It has no pretensions. It's about a train. That's going to blow up. So get out of the way or get on board.