The King’s Speech / The Fighter

 

My desire to write about stuff seems to be ebbing. Even when I see awesome stuff like True Grit or whatever, and have to enumerate its virtues to everyone I meet, the task of sitting down and typing just doesn’t appeal to me. As such, both of these movies have been sitting in my head for a week or two now and I don’t think I can say that much about either of them, so they’re gonna be all friendly-like and sit together in the same post.

The King’s Speech is a British biopic of sorts, chronicling King George V’s heir non-apparent’s difficulties with any sort of public and some private speaking. He’s initially a total loss whenever he’s required to make a speech for anything. After a bunch of failed attempts to find a good speech therapist, his wife finally finds a guy whose only credentials are his experiences in the field, but he happens to be a really friendly guy and just the sort of person good ol’ Berty needs. We’re then treated to a story with some similarities to My Fair Lady except the Lady is a dude, and it’s more of a bromance than a romance. There’s lots of uplifting themery and heaviness brought on by the World-War II period, and the main characters’ likability is undeniable. Not exactly a breakthrough in cinema or anything but it’s definitely well-made and enjoyable enough.

The Fighter is a movie with Mark Wahlberg in it. At least, that’s what it might have been. Sure, he’s the main dude supposedly, but thankfully he’s not that bad (most likely due to good direction) and the rest of the cast blows him so much out of the water that you kind of forget he’s there. It’s another biopic, this time with a smaller scope time-wise, and a completely different setting. Mark plays a boxer whose career is overshadowed by his older crack-head brother’s brief time in the ring in which he allegedly took down Sugar Ray Leonard at some time. The crack-head is played incredibly by Christian Bale in another completely on-point role, with physical conditioning similar to his transformation in The Machinist. Amy Adams is Mark’s gorgeous potty-mouthed girlfriend, and even Conan O’Brien’s sister has a nifty supporting part. All of the acting is brilliant (except for Wahlberg’s which is okay enough), and the story is really good. It’s probably a good depiction of what crack can do to a person.

Both films end happily. I preferred The Fighter because it had a bunch of moments where the characters did things that I could barely think of rational people doing, and that sort of thing (in moderation) keeps my interest more than the more low-key sort of movie that The King’s Speech is. Also Christian Bale’s performance is just outstanding. I’d recommend seeing both though.