The King's Speech and HIMYM
I saw The King's Speech!
I'll cut straight to the chase: the juxtaposition at the climax of the movie - between the victory of Bertie delivering the speech and the tragedy of the actual message he's delivering to his subjects - was one of the most incredibly moving things I've ever seen in a film. The way you feel this thrill of victory that he's actually doing it and you see Lionel and Elizabeth being so happy and proud! But then you tune into the words and, you know what's coming*, particularly when he says "there may be dark days ahead" and you see a group of young soldiers gathered around a radio in the back of a jeep. It's just this perfect, perfect scene that hits all the emotions on the spectrum at once: pride, joy, achievement, dread, sorrow, fear.
[ *Man, something that always really saddens me about pre/early-WW2 movies about London, is that you know that everyone is anticipating some bad times, but they have no idea how bad it's really about to get for them. They all think the War is off on the Continent and they don't really know what they're going to be going through for the next several years. Of all the things to make me cry in this movie, the air raid sirens going off and everyone running for shelter while Lionel and his son drive up to the palace was the one that got me the most. ]
The movie was shot beautifully, every single shot would make a gorgeous photograph. And the set design was wonderful also, Lionel's studio was just gorgeous with the shabby couch and the distressed wall, and then all the patterned wallpapers and antique furniture, sigh. I want to live inside that movie.
Also, on a side note, movies about British history always make me realize how little I actually know about British history. Like, I thought I had a pretty firm grasp on things, but when the PM was like "I'm giving up and handing things over to Neville Chamberlain" I was like "zuh? if you're not Neville Chamberlain who are you?" and to be perfectly honest, when Churchill shows up at that random party in Scotland I thought he was PM already. SORRY ENGLAND. AND I had no idea about Edward VIII and his whole, sexy situation.
(And, um, stupid question: what was Henry VIII's whole business about if Edward's whole sexy situation was still a problem? That line where Albert's like "But dude, you can't carry on with a divorced woman because you're the head of the church." I was like "Wait, wasn't this church kind of FOUNDED on divorce?" SOMEONE TELL ME.)
ETA: OH, I didn't say anything about the performances, which were all really great. Colin Firth and Geoffrey Rush and Helena Bonham Carter and Guy Pearce were all outstanding. Jennifer Ehle was there (! I bet she and Colin were like "OH HAY, SO HOW DID THAT BREAKTHROUGH ROLE TURN OUT FOR YOU?" to each other, awkward.), and her scene with Helena Bonham Carter was just really adorable.
On the other hand, this is probably my nerd talking but having Wormtail play Churchill was actually pretty distracting.
EDIT AGAIN: ALSO, I forgot how much I loved those little girls playing Elizabeth and Margaret! The scene where they greet their father the King for the first time, so adorable! And then Elizabeth having that little moment at the end where she tells her dad he faltered a little. D'awww.
Also How I Met Your Mother:
I'm re-watching right now and I can't believe I missed all of the numbers. I saw 50 and 49 because they were bright and red and right in the middle of the screen, but then I stopped noticing them until the 10 on Robin's jacket, but even just seeing the 10-9-8... all the way down to 1 was enough to totally have an impact. I didn't even know what to expect, but I was like "SOMETHING'S COMING, SOMETHING GOOD" in my head and then they got me right in the gut. Ughhh, wow.
I'll cut straight to the chase: the juxtaposition at the climax of the movie - between the victory of Bertie delivering the speech and the tragedy of the actual message he's delivering to his subjects - was one of the most incredibly moving things I've ever seen in a film. The way you feel this thrill of victory that he's actually doing it and you see Lionel and Elizabeth being so happy and proud! But then you tune into the words and, you know what's coming*, particularly when he says "there may be dark days ahead" and you see a group of young soldiers gathered around a radio in the back of a jeep. It's just this perfect, perfect scene that hits all the emotions on the spectrum at once: pride, joy, achievement, dread, sorrow, fear.
[ *Man, something that always really saddens me about pre/early-WW2 movies about London, is that you know that everyone is anticipating some bad times, but they have no idea how bad it's really about to get for them. They all think the War is off on the Continent and they don't really know what they're going to be going through for the next several years. Of all the things to make me cry in this movie, the air raid sirens going off and everyone running for shelter while Lionel and his son drive up to the palace was the one that got me the most. ]
The movie was shot beautifully, every single shot would make a gorgeous photograph. And the set design was wonderful also, Lionel's studio was just gorgeous with the shabby couch and the distressed wall, and then all the patterned wallpapers and antique furniture, sigh. I want to live inside that movie.
Also, on a side note, movies about British history always make me realize how little I actually know about British history. Like, I thought I had a pretty firm grasp on things, but when the PM was like "I'm giving up and handing things over to Neville Chamberlain" I was like "zuh? if you're not Neville Chamberlain who are you?" and to be perfectly honest, when Churchill shows up at that random party in Scotland I thought he was PM already. SORRY ENGLAND. AND I had no idea about Edward VIII and his whole, sexy situation.
(And, um, stupid question: what was Henry VIII's whole business about if Edward's whole sexy situation was still a problem? That line where Albert's like "But dude, you can't carry on with a divorced woman because you're the head of the church." I was like "Wait, wasn't this church kind of FOUNDED on divorce?" SOMEONE TELL ME.)
ETA: OH, I didn't say anything about the performances, which were all really great. Colin Firth and Geoffrey Rush and Helena Bonham Carter and Guy Pearce were all outstanding. Jennifer Ehle was there (! I bet she and Colin were like "OH HAY, SO HOW DID THAT BREAKTHROUGH ROLE TURN OUT FOR YOU?" to each other, awkward.), and her scene with Helena Bonham Carter was just really adorable.
On the other hand, this is probably my nerd talking but having Wormtail play Churchill was actually pretty distracting.
EDIT AGAIN: ALSO, I forgot how much I loved those little girls playing Elizabeth and Margaret! The scene where they greet their father the King for the first time, so adorable! And then Elizabeth having that little moment at the end where she tells her dad he faltered a little. D'awww.
Also How I Met Your Mother:
I'm re-watching right now and I can't believe I missed all of the numbers. I saw 50 and 49 because they were bright and red and right in the middle of the screen, but then I stopped noticing them until the 10 on Robin's jacket, but even just seeing the 10-9-8... all the way down to 1 was enough to totally have an impact. I didn't even know what to expect, but I was like "SOMETHING'S COMING, SOMETHING GOOD" in my head and then they got me right in the gut. Ughhh, wow.