The King's Speech
Really good. Very well paced and constructed, and I generally loved the acting, and it's very, very well put together and entertaining. Watch out for the gorgeous Jennifer Ehle. Timothy Spall is bizarre as Churchill, and there are some stock characters, like the Archbishop, who is a parody of so, so many historical-drama Archbishops. Guy Pearce is brilliantly plausible as a weak, airheaded and vicious Edward VIII. It's also full of wonderful rooms. Moving and funny and so much fun. It's not Alan Bennett, but I loved it.
The Tempest
Helen Mirren is great, the costumes are interesting, and the Rude Mechanicals are good too (including Russell Brand, who manages to say all of the words like they really just occurred to him, which is just as it should be). But the pacing is all over the place, the romantic leads are weak (I wanted to push them into the sea, like in the first Pirates of the Caribbean) and the special effects are the lamest thing ever. Overall, it's tedious. Straight to DVD, I'd say - and watch that mainly for the costumes.
Did you spot that some of the interiors in The King's Speech were shot at 33 Portland Place? - former site of a milonga (as well as other types of events apparently)
ReplyDeleteYes, I noticed they used the ground floor room at the back, with the skylight, for Logue's studio. Good choice.
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