Movie Reviews: The King's Speech, The Next Three Days, 127 Hours, Season of The Witch

Jan 5 2011 By Graham Young and Roz Laws

THE KING’S SPEECH * * * * *
Cert 12A, 118 mins
Being able to communicate is a basic human necessity and one that most of us take for granted.

But imagine the sheer frustration of not being able to get your words out. The annoyance of having a stammer and taking a painfully long time to complete a sentence.

Then imagine that you are delivering a vital speech to the nation, with your citizens hanging on your every word.

That was the huge pressure on the shoulders of poor George VI when war broke out in 1939. This excellent film shows us the events leading up to that moment.

We first meet George, marvellously played by Colin Firth, in 1925 when he’s the Duke of York, the King’s second son, known as Bertie to his family.

A naval officer, happily married to Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, he’s not expected to play a huge part in public life. It’s just as well, as when he has to give a speech using “the new invention of radio”, live from Wembley, he finds it really hard to get his words out.

You really feel for him as he stammers his way through, leaving wife Elizabeth (the wonderful Helena Bonham Carter) in tears.

Fast forward to 1934, when he’s a father to princesses Elizabeth and Margaret but can’t even tell them a bedtime story.

Desperate to find a cure, Elizabeth seeks out Australian speech therapist Lionel Logue (Geoffrey Rush).

Logue uses unorthodox, but effective, methods like reading aloud while listening to very loud music and rolling about on the floor. He also insists the royal come to his rooms in Harley Street, not the other way round, and that he be allowed to call him Bertie.

When his brother Edward (Guy Pearce) abdicates to marry Wallis Simpson, Bertie is thrust into a role he doesn’t want and needs Logue’s help even more.

One mild note of warning – there is one sustained bout of swearing which you wouldn’t expect in a 12A film, but there is a point to it and it is more amusing than offensive.

The excellent cast includes Michael Gambon as George VI, Derek Jacobi as the Archbishop of Canterbury, Timothy Spall as Churchill, Anthony Andrews as Baldwin and Jennifer Ehle as Mrs Logue.

Very funny in some places, full of tension in others and terribly moving at times, The King’s Speech is brilliantly written and performed.

It’s no surprise that it’s been nominated for seven Golden Globes. I expect similar success at the Oscars, and if there’s any justice Firth will finally be given the Academy Award he was denied last year. RL

THE NEXT THREE DAYS * * * *
Cert 12A, 132 mins
A remake of the classy 2008 French film Anything For Her starring Diane Kruger, writer/director Paul Haggis hardly changes anything for his Hollywood version.

So there will be no surprises if you’ve seen the original. But other cinema-goers could well be on the edge of their seats as the gripping, if far-fetched, events unfold.

Pittsburgh teacher John Brennan (Russell Crowe) is happily married to Lara (Elizabeth Banks) and they have an adorable son. Suddenly the police burst in and drag Lara off, accusing her of killing her boss. She didn’t do it but incriminating evidence puts her behind bars for life.

When her final appeal is rejected, she attempts suicide and John realises he must take drastic action – and break her out of prison.

He begins his elaborate planning with the help of the internet and Liam Neeson, who’s handily written a book on how he escaped from prison seven times. John finds that, if pushed, he’s capable of almost anything, from buying fake passports and a gun to shooting people.

Haggis, who directed Crash and penned Million Dollar Baby and Casino Royale, knows how to tell a tale and does so in compelling style here – although it’s overlong and could have done with more action in its flabby middle section. It might also have helped if Lara’s character was fleshed out more so that we knew why John is prepared to risk so much for her. RL

127 HOURS * * * *
Cert 15, 94 mins
Never miss the beginning of a Danny Boyle film. Even if the movie doesn’t quite end up going to where you might want it to, the Trainspotting director certainly knows how to start ’em off with a bang.

Watching mountaineer Aron Alston (James Franco) careering around on his bicycle in Utah’s canyon region is a joy to behold.

Alston is a real free spirit, eager to make the most of every single minute out in the big wide open landscape.

When he meets a couple of backpacking girls, he encourages them to try a pool-diving stunt which will have your heart in your mouth.

What could possibly go wrong when the sun is shining and when God has created such a wonderfully natural playground?

Plenty – as Alston is soon set to find out.

Once the girls have gone, falling down one of the canyons and finding his arm is trapped by a boulder turns out to be a nasty accident.

Then it’s a major inconvenience.

And, as the seconds, minutes and hours tick away, one of life’s ultimate nightmares.

Boyle’s first film after his Oscar-winning success with Slumdog Millionaire is a well-crafted exercise in filmmaking technique about how to do so much with so little.

Just as Alston had to challenge himself to survive, so too does Boyle.

The result is a highly watchable, increasingly claustrophobic ‘thriller’ which won’t leave you feeling hacked off even if you already know the outcome.

Repeat visits are unlikely because 127 Hours lacks the elements of surprise which kept Ryan Reynolds in a coffin in the fictional Buried last September.

Nor are you likely to find it as moving as those other based-on-a-true-story survivalist adventures like Touching The Void (2003), Into the Wild (2007) and last year’s remarkable, love-story documentary The Wildest Dream in which Ralph Fiennes voiced the Mount Everest pioneer, George Mallory. GY

SEASON OF THE WITCH * * *
Cert 15, 95 mins
You’ve probably never heard of first time screenwriter Bragi F Schut.

And, after wading through this 14th century swords-and-witches hokum you’ll probably never want to see his name again.

His efforts here for Gone In Sixty Seconds director Dominic Sena even feel dangerously close to plagiarism.

Only last June, Bristol director Christopher Smith gave us a full-on thriller called Black Death which at least tried to engage viewers in the wider 14th century battle between religion, witchcraft and affairs of the heart.

Sean Bean was at his ‘‘bit of rough’’ best while literally stretching himself to play Ulric, a battle-hardened knight of the world.

A young monk called Osmund led him to a remote marsh where a mysterious beauty called Langiva was said to bring people back to life.

In Season of the Witch, two Crusaders called Behmen (Nicolas Cage) and Felson (Ron Perlman) are charged with transporting a young beauty to a remote abbey where monks might cleanse her soul.

We know this because the man imploring them to do it is Cardinal D’Ambroise, played by Christopher Lee, the still-prolific 87-year-old who clearly enjoys a bit of part-time deathbed work (viz his most recent cameo in October’s release of Burke and Hare).

Going along for this version of a dangerous woodland ride are priest Debelzaq (Stephen Campbell Moore), knight Eckhart (Ulrich Thomsen), swordsman Hagamar (Stephen Graham) and a tenacious young man called Kay (Robert Sheehan).

Put them altogether on a Black Death journey with ferocious wolves and a fraying suspension bridge and there has to be a culling of the cast en route, but what will the order be?

And will Behmen redeem himself after giving up on the Crusades when he realised that killing women and children is not good for your mentality?

Plenty of digital effects add gore if precious little suspense.

Cage’s natural desire to add his trademark humour to proceedings is all but neutered while Villa’s record-breaking goalkeeper Brad Friedel could have played the part given to the physically-imposing Hellboy star Perlman. GY