The King's Speech

The King’s Speech is a film from 2010 about the real life story of Prince Albert (Colin Firth) who became King George the VI of England, and his struggles with speaking. He had a stuttering problem, which is a huge issue for anyone being able to communicate with others effectively, and it may bring shame and ridicule to the victim. It was made even more difficult for this sensitive man nicknamed Bertie, and who was expected to make speeches to the kingdom. (Royalty has more than one name, which can be confusing.)

His wife Elizabeth (Helena Bonham Carter) has been seeking out the help of linguists, speech therapists, and healers for many years, and they finally light upon Lionel Logue (Geoffrey Rush), whose unorthodox, yet effective ways of dealing with the stuttering issue begin to help Albert.

This was an interesting time in British history to portray, as the years depicted led up to Britain entering into war against Nazi Germany. Also in the mix was Albert’s well-known brother David, aka King Edward the VIII (Guy Pearce), whose affair with American socialite and twice-divorced Wallis Simpson (Eve Best) led to scandal for the crown. When he abdicates the throne, Albert is thrust even more into the public eye when he becomes King George.

The film is a beautiful, often dreamy depiction of the streets and countryside of England. Set decorations and costuming were well done and no doubt congruent with the times. Academy Award winner Alexandre Desplat (who won for The Grand Budapest Hotel) wrote the score, and the selections of music throughout fit the time and situations well. Danny Cohen was nominated for Best Cinematography and although he didn’t win, the nomination was well deserved.

More than a story about the King of England, it is a story that anyone who has the affliction of stuttering can be inspired by. The psychological basis for the problem is explored, and the stormy relationship between Logue and Albert depicted very well.

My favorite part of the film is when King George gives his famous speech over the “wireless” to his kingdom, including Canada, Australia, etc. announcing war with Germany. It is the most moving piece in the film that may bring you to tears. It is beautiful to watch Logue acting as a sort of conductor to George’s reading his speech.

The King’s Speech won four Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Original Screenplay for David Seidler, Best Actor for Colin Firth, and Best Director for Tom Hooper. It is rated R for some language. I think the R rating shouldn’t scare you off from sharing this film with your children. The language is probably nothing they haven’t already heard, and the film’s message so important it shouldn’t be missed for that reason.

I highly recommend this film. It is engaging on many levels, for the history, for the compassion evoked in the viewer towards King George and for all people with a stuttering problem, and just because it is so well crafted.

Juno

The film Juno won a Best Original Screenplay Academy Award for new screenwriter Diablo Cody. It is a fast paced, clever and quirky movie from 2007 about teen pregnancy and adoption. It is not, however, a typical adoption story.

Juno (Ellen Page) has one night of introductory sex with her classmate and friend Paulie Bleeker (Michael Cera), and as happens far too frequently, their unprotected tryst results in 16-year-old Juno being with child.

Her father Mac (J. K. Simmons) and step-mother Bren (Allison Janney) are the way parents everywhere should be if their precocious teen becomes pregnant: supportive. Juno has decided to have the baby and give it up to a loving home for adoption.

Enter Vanessa (Jennifer Garner) and Mark (Jason Bateman) as the couple who are overjoyed to be the recipient of Juno’s baby gift. All of these arrangements are completed in an entertaining way, while traversing the four distinct seasons of a year in Minnesota. We see Juno’s life unfold through this year, from the reveal of her pregnancy to the birth.

This is not your typical A-Z adoption story, and the twists and turns it takes are really entertaining, as life progresses in a somewhat non-linear fashion for Juno. I liked how the film ended, but I can’t tell you why because I don’t want there to be any spoilers for you!

All the characters’ dialogue is very well written, and Juno especially has a mouth on her that Ellen Page delivers with such finesse and unselfconsciousness, no wonder she received an Academy Award nomination that year for Best Actress. The character Juno is a little over the top, but not pretentious like Clementine in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. The film was also nominated for Best Picture and Best Director for Jason Reitman.

This film could be a tearjerker for you. I don’t normally like sappy kinds of films about babies, but certain ones like Juno and Knocked Up, end up being very funny for me as well as making me a little teary eyed.

The film was released in 2007 and is rated PG-13 for mature thematic material, sexual content and language. There are a few voice over’s in the film, all by Juno, and the uncommon use of this technique fits the story well. The voters in the Academy chose an offbeat comedy to award Best Original Screenplay to in Juno, and this doesn’t often happen. The Academy prefers drama when giving out awards. In this case, I believe it was well deserved.

A note here on my process for selecting the Best Original Screenplay Academy Award winners for the Blogging A to Z Challenge. I looked at the winners in this category chronologically from most recent on back, and as each letter came up, gave it a place in the alphabet for the month of April. This kept out any bias I might have about a particular film, and whether I wanted to watch or write about it. Thanks for reading!

Interrupted Melody

Let me just say right up front: I don’t like opera. But this movie about an opera singer begins with the letter I, and won an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay, so I watched it in the interests of my commitment to the Blogging A to Z Challenge! I saw it on Amazon streaming (it wasn’t very easy to find).

Interrupted Melody is a film from 1955 based on the true story of Marjorie Lawrence, a gifted opera star. It is dense in the beginning with numerous arias of various productions she sang in. Despite my having to sit through the beautiful soprano vocal expertise of Eileen Farrell, who was dubbed in later, the story was fascinating and heartwarming.

Marjorie Lawrence (Eleanor Parker) grew up in a small town in Australia. Her vocal gifts were noticed at a young age and she was able to obtain a scholarship to Paris. Her career is no less than a catapult to fame and notoriety. Her brother Cyril (Roger Moore) was her manager. Marjorie is a strong willed woman, shown in various scenes where she defies her director on stage during a performance, much to the delight of the audience and her critics.

She meets Dr. Tom King (Glenn Ford) and they immediately fall in love. As with complicated relationships where both individuals want careers, it’s a struggle to finally commit to each other.

The unfortunate illness of Marjorie hits suddenly and she is diagnosed with polio. The rest of the film is focused on Dr. King and Marjorie dealing with her illness, which was devastating to a young woman used to being center stage and singing joyfully every day of her life.

It’s about the time of World War II, which ends up figuring into the story. What I liked about the film was the wonderful screenwriting and dialogue, especially between Marjorie and Tom. They have an easy repartee, and their romance is made believable, although I’m sure it was spiffed up for a Hollywood movie.

The other thing about the story that is interesting is how a couple deals with illness and the entire disruption of their lives. Do they just give up, stay down, or do they find a way to cope with the drastic changes?

It was an inspiring story, and if you like opera, you will definitely love this film. Perhaps you’ve even heard of Marjorie Lawrence. I did recognize some of the operatic stories that were staged briefly to show how Marjorie commanded the stage (Carmen, Madame Butterfly, Samson and Delilah, and a couple works of Wagner, among others).

It is rare that the Academy recognizes a musical for best screenplay, much less best picture. This is the only one I’m aware of that featured an opera star. Eleanor Parker sung the arias in her performance, and later Eileen Farrell’s voice was dubbed in. It sounds and looks impressive. I actually thought Eleanor Parker was the one singing until I read about the dubbing. Well done.

Her

Joaquin Phoenix stars in the 2013 quirky futuristic film, Her, by Spike Jonze. Computers have reached a level of sophistication whereby artificial intelligence in the form of a special operating system (OS) can be purchased by lonely humans as a sort of companion and organizer of their life.

Theodore (Joaquin Phoenix) is a lonely man going through a divorce from Catherine (Rooney Mara). He has a job as a letter writer for those who apparently cannot write. Scary future if people have mostly lost the capability to write for themselves, and scarier still that there are signs of that almost everywhere these days (but not in Blogging A to Z!). Theodore puts his innermost thoughts and feelings directly into the personal letters he writes for his clients.

Scarlett Johansson is the voice of Samantha, the OS who organizes Theodore’s life. She is never seen obviously, but plays an important role for Theodore, who is coping with the grief from his separation and trouble in love. He soon becomes infatuated with Samantha, and they are nearly inseparable.

A good friend from college days, Amy (Amy Adams), is a confidant for Theodore, one of the few real people he seems to connect with. Everyone in this film seems to be having trouble with relationships, including Amy. No wonder; they’re all walking around talking into space, kind of like having a blue tooth, and seldom interact with each other.

Cyber sex (Kristin Wiig in a hilarious turn as the voice of SexyKitten) and surrogate sex so that Samantha can have sex with Theodore, provide some really hilarious moments. Basically, this is about a society where no one knows how to have a truly satisfying intimate relationship anymore. Theodore has a blind date (Olivia Wilde) that doesn’t go anywhere either.

The film is rated R for language, sexual content, and brief graphic nudity. It takes place in a Los Angeles of the future, looking mysteriously like the well-populated skyline of Singapore, where it was filmed, along with some filming taking place in LA.

I like Her. Joaquin Phoenix really has to carry the whole film and his expressive face is in virtually every scene. I also enjoyed the sparse costuming, a future world where men don’t wear belts anymore, just those tight slacks.

I agree with the Academy awarding the Best Original Screenplay to Her and Spike Jonze. The writing is terrific, great dialogue (in fact this is one of the films I’ve seen where there is almost constant dialogue), and really quite thoughtful conversations between the characters, whether they are another human or an OS.

Are we as a world heading this way? You’d think so watching people walking down the street like they do in this film, not really seeing what’s around them, all focused on their devices. I hope it doesn’t turn out to be film as prophecy, and we all succumb to the addictive draw into our computers, telephones, and whatever other electronic device is next available on the market.

Gosford Park

Gosford Park is a 2001 British film directed by Robert Altman. It received an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay, and is rated R for some language and brief sexuality.

Taking place in 1932, it features a party at the country manor of William (Michael Gambon) and Sylvia (Kristin Scott-Thomas) McCordle. The guests arrive for a weekend of hunting, each accompanied by a valet or maid. This was a time in Britain when the classes were quite distinctly separated in terms of wealth and servitude. Not exactly American slavery in the pre-civil war days, but it had its own disgusting over- and undertones to it as depicted in the film.

The cast is divided into the upstairs guests, and the downstairs servants.  Mrs. Wilson (Helen Mirren) meticulously runs every aspect of the servants’ work. Her sister also works in the manor, as does the sister’s husband. Elsie (Emily Watson) is an outspoken servant, warming to a visiting maid Mary (Kelly Macdonald). Robert Parks (Clive Owen) enters the picture as the valet of a guest, and the other residents of this mansion do not ignore his good looks.

The trailer suggests that someone will be murdered during this film, and thus it is a whodunit, with clues sprinkled liberally throughout. Missing knives, bottles of poison, and lots of motives to do any number of people in, both within the guests as well as for the servants milling about trying to do their job to their employer’s satisfaction.

Morris Weissman (Bob Balaban) is a Hollywood exec invited to the hunting weekend, and he brings his valet, a curious Scotsman, Henry Denton (Ryan Phillippe). Sexual dalliances in the house are common, and the upper class doesn’t seem to be any better off really than the lowly servants, financially that is.

A Hollywood star Ivor Novello (Jeremy Northam) provides welcome relief as he plays the piano and sings. William’s aunt Constance (Maggie Smith) is a real shrew, very disdainful to the other guests, and goes about with such an air of entitlement that perhaps only Maggie Smith could pull it off (and she did). The grounds where they go pheasant hunting are quite beautiful. You can almost feel the rain and dampness that permeates the poorly heated mansion.

Basically, I liked this film. Robert Altman directed the weaving of these disparate lives together very well. I wondered how he could keep track of all the different scenes, as the action travels upstairs and downstairs to give us a feel for who all the characters are, setting the stage for the murder that comes well after an hour into the film.

Who did it? I can’t say much more here as no spoilers will pass my lips. How do all the players fit together? You will need to see for yourself. It is a well-written and filmed murder mystery, not launching prematurely, but allowing us to see what this culture was like. If you’re an Anglophile, or a Maggie Smith fan, definitely watch Gosford Park.

Father Goose

Father Goose is a comedy/romance from 1964 starring Cary Grant and Leslie Caron. Cary Grant was 60 years old, and Leslie Caron 33 years old when the film was made, and somehow, despite their age difference, they make a good match for a romantic comedy.

Walter Eckland (Cary Grant) is an American with a drinking problem who has fled to the South Pacific in order to escape his conventional life only to find himself in the middle of World War II. Commander Frank Houghton (Trevor Howard), of the British Royal Navy, tricks Walter into taking up residence on an isolated island where he is to watch for enemy aircraft and report their movements. Walter was assigned the moniker of Mother Goose as a code name to be used when speaking over the radio to the Commander and his staff, thus the title of the film.

Walter is sent to rescue another spotter in danger, and when he arrives at the other island discovers Catherine Freneau (Leslie Caron) and the seven female students she is responsible for. Walter reluctantly transports them back to his island, and all sorts of adventures are just waiting to happen. The dialogue between Walter and Catherine is witty, the interactions between Walter and the Commander and his staff are very funny, and the girls each have their own unique way of dealing with Walter, who is changed by them. This film is definitely all about Cary Grant. He is front and center of just about every scene.

Movies from the 1960’s and earlier have some strange things going on in them. Walter and Catherine slap each other in the face several times, and this seems to be some kind of foreplay for them. That part is interesting because we get to see what was acceptable back then that wouldn’t be tolerated today. Aside from the bizarre slapping episode, there really is nothing objectionable in the film, and it is quite entertaining.

I read that Cary Grant said that he was more like the character of Walter Eckland than for example, some of his more suave, privileged characters. I have always enjoyed his performances in Alfred Hitchcock films especially. Hitchcock, who didn’t really hold actors in very high esteem, reportedly said that Cary Grant was the only actor he loved working with.

Father Goose won Best Original Screenplay at the Academy Awards for story by S. H. Barnett, and screenplay by Peter Stone and Frank Tarloff. This may be a good time to talk about writing credit conventions. You will notice that there is story and screenplay mentioned when referencing the award here. Story refers to actual writing, not just an idea. It can take the form of a story or treatment, or sometimes a complete script. Screenplay in this case would then refer to a subsequent writer doing a rewrite of the original material.

This is a classic film watched over and over again for its unique storyline and comedy. I highly recommend it to you.

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

Charlie Kaufman is known for some kind of strange screenplays (Being John Malkovich, and Adaptation are two I really enjoyed). Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is another. I had seen it several years ago, when first released in 2004 and I didn’t care for it very much. It was a film that won Best Original Screenplay for Charlie Kaufman, and it begins with E, so I watched it again.

This time I enjoyed it. Don’t know what put me off the first time, but this story of people desperate to rid their memories of failed romance works. The film is rated R for language, some drug and sexual content.

Joel (Jim Carrey) meets free spirit Clementine (Kate Winslet), and they end up in a stormy relationship. Joel finds out by accident that Clementine has undergone a procedure by Dr. Mierzwiak (Tom Wilkinson) to erase all memories of him. Dr. Mierzwiak‘s business, Lacuna, Inc., caters to those hurt by love that just want a new start.

Once Joel finds this out, he too wants the procedure done. After all it is non-surgical and deemed safe. Dr. Mierzwiak employs three assistants, Stan (Mark Ruffalo), Mary (Kirsten Dunst), and Patrick (Elijah Wood). Three kooky free spirits themselves, they administer the brain altering procedure to Joel in his bed in his own apartment during the night, getting into all sorts of escapades while he’s asleep.

That part was really funny, as is what happens when Joel begins to resist the erasing of his memories of Clementine. The world around him begins to fade and disappear, like a pencil erasing a picture someone has drawn. The cinematography reminded me of a more recent film, Inception, where the world folds in on itself. In the spotless mind, the world simply crumbles and turns to ash.

Clementine is an annoying sort of young woman, striving to be cool and daring for attention, which you know is done to cover up her insecurities and lack of confidence. She seems phony to me, but Joel loves her.

Joel is a lonely sort of guy, also insecure, but where Clementine likes to be on stage, he does not. He’s more of the wallflower type, miserable yet safe standing in a corner watching the world go by. I thought both characters were well written, and the performances by Carrey and Winslet excellent.

The three assistants to Dr. Mierzwiak are a welcome addition to the cast of characters. Their individual stories help to create the comedy in what could otherwise have been just a boring story about two miserable people looking to forget each other.

Is Valentine’s Day really the most miserable holiday of the year? For those unlucky in love, perhaps erasing your memories will make you happier. But does it? Be sure to watch the extra feature on the DVD of an ad for Lacuna, Inc. where Dr. Mierzwiak makes the case for undergoing his safe, non-surgical procedure. Then you can decide if you too want eternal sunshine in your mind.

Django Unchained

Quentin Tarantino. If you don’t know who that is, you’ve been asleep at the movies. He won best original screenplay for this 2012 fictional film, Django Unchained, which takes place in America two years prior to the Civil War. Christoph Waltz won his second Academy Award for best supporting actor in this gruesome tale.

Tarantino’s movies are violent. It is rated R for strong graphic violence throughout, a vicious fight, language, and some nudity. Django (Jamie Foxx) is one of several slaves being transported somewhere, walking barefoot, chains around their ankles, when German dentist Dr. King Schultz (Christoph Waltz) accosts the group. He quickly convinces the slave traders to sell him Django, once he’s determined that Django could spot the men he is after for a bounty, dead or alive. He then frees him, not approving of slavery.

Thus begins the partnership of Django and Dr. Schultz. They team up to hunt down white men who are bank robbers, cattle rustlers, etc. and shoot them dead. Django has a wife, Hilde (Kerry Washington), who has been sold to slave owner Calvin Candie (Leonardo diCaprio) on a plantation in Mississippi. Dr. Schultz encourages Django to find her offering his assistance.

The blood bath begins. Blood is splattered everywhere, over the white balls of cotton in the hot fields, over the houses and clothing of anyone unlucky enough to be in the way. If this film doesn’t make you want gun control, nothing will. You’ll need a strong stomach to watch the cruelty dealt out by wicked slaveholders.

The reason perhaps why this film won an award is that it is written very well, utilizing the legend of Siegfried and Brunhilde, saved from the dragon. Hilde speaks German due to ownership by a previous German slave owner, and can converse with Dr. Schultz effectively.

Christoph Waltz brilliantly plays the character of Dr. King Schultz. The dialogue is written so engagingly and he never comes out of character. He played a Nazi in Tarantino’s film Inglorious Bastards, (his first Academy Award winning role) a sort of cathartic film where we get to watch Nazis being terminated by a group of volunteers. Yes, we hate the Nazis and we hate slave owners, so seeing them get blown away gives some satisfaction, but it doesn’t really do the job.

For that, we still have to fight racism and racial profiling, and intolerance of religious groups for which some are still at risk and are killed for even today. It is not enough to watch this film. I wonder if Mr. Tarantino does anything to fight intolerance and injustice other than make his films. I hope so.

I do recommend this film if you’re a screenwriter who can also stomach the blood shed. It harkens back to old Westerns made in the beginnings of cinema in America, and the music accents the action quite well. Expertly filmed, it is often visually appealing, showing the Western landscape, the mountains and rivers that are still so beautiful today.

Crash

Written and directed by Paul Haggis, the drama Crash from 2004 won Best Film, Best Original Screenplay (for Paul Haggis and Robert Moresco), and Best Film Editing at the Academy Awards. It is rated R for language, sexual content, and some violence. It employs an ensemble cast whose characters weave in and out of each other’s lives over a 36-hour period in Los Angeles.

This film has at its core an examination of racism and prejudice. The characters are a cross-section of America in ethnicity, social class, and religion. Police officers figure prominently in this tale of tragedy and thankfully, in some cases, redemption.

The best most heart wrenching moments in the film are those with Daniel (Michael Pena), a Hispanic locksmith with a young daughter Lara (Ashlyn Sanchez). He faces discrimination for nothing more than basically sporting tattoos on his person from Jean (Sandra Bullock), who has the locks changed on her home after being carjacked at gunpoint with her husband, district attorney Rick (Brendan Fraser). She suspects Daniel’s a gang member and can’t be trusted to change the locks in her home. While Daniel works on a job at a convenience store, an encounter with the shop owner Farhad (Shaun Toub) creates such bitterness in Farhad’s soul that he goes after Daniel. This was a brilliant piece of writing that translated well to the screen.

Despite a best original screenplay win, some of the dialogue feels a bit didactic. Maybe it’s the delivery, or just that there was so much to delineate and say about race relations in LA that it couldn’t come off as more natural sounding dialogue. Again, the story lines about Daniel and Farhad are the most genuine and natural and well performed. A lot of the other characters are just spouting off long diatribes about the state of affairs in LA and really all of America in terms of race and prejudice.  In the 13 years since Crash was released, not much has changed in terms of some still harboring fear and prejudice of anyone who is different from them in terms of sexual orientation, religion or race.

Other cast members include Don Cheadle, Jennifer Esposito, Matt Dillon, Ryan Phillippe, Thandie Newton, Terrance Howard, Loretta Devine, and Tony Danza. They were cast well in their roles and all do a good job with the situations they were asked to portray.

Crash is the kind of film where you really have to pay attention to every encounter, and then at the end, the missing links between the characters come around full circle. I basically like the film despite its preachy message. About every ethnic group is represented here; African-Americans at two extremes of social class, Asians, Hispanics, Muslims, white privileged upper class, and basically working class law enforcement. The weaving back and forth between stories works to draw the viewer along and stay engaged with the film. You’re always wondering what will happen next to the person on screen, and to the relationships between the characters.

Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)

Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) is a fine cinematic offering released in 2014 from director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, also the director of Gravity and The Revenant. Birdman is a tale of one man’s attempt to create something he believes will have a lasting impact on the world.

Riggan Thomson (Michael Keaton) has had a career in filmmaking, most notably as the superhero Birdman. He writes a play based on a short story by esteemed author Raymond Carver, What We Talk About When We Talk About Love. The play is in rehearsals with opening night on Broadway fast approaching when we meet Riggan struggling to both direct and star in his play.

Sam (Emma Stone), Riggan’s daughter, works for him as a sort of gofer running errands, and she is one angry young lady fresh out of rehab. His ex-wife Sylvia (Amy Ryan) comes for a visit, and further complicating his life, his three fellow actors are all neurotic and self-absorbed: Mike (Edward Norton) is a handful of ego driven charisma, who harasses his former lover Lesley (Naomi Watts) on stage and off, and Riggan’s much younger lover Laura (Andrea Riseborough) is jealous and insecure. His manager Jake (Zach Galifianakis) tries to keep things steady for Riggan, but chaos tends to follow him everywhere.

The story works well, alternating between Riggan’s direction of the play and his inner musings, or rather possession, by his alter ego Birdman. The story effectively ridicules the super hero genre, and the movie-going public’s questionable intelligence in gravitating towards those types of films.

Broadway is painted to be an ego filled place, from the critics who can make or break an opening, to the actors who constantly wonder if they are good enough for the stage. The film is confined mostly to the theater, the back stage behind the scenes workings of the production, and to the actors’ dressing rooms that serve as sanctuary and a place to vent their angst. The camera often follows the actor down hallways and through the depths of the theater in one smooth take, serving to unite the action with the character’s internal progression as the tension builds and Riggan reaches the point of breaking.

I really enjoyed this film. I saw it in the theater when it first came out, and liked it on DVD again. All the acting is superb, especially Edward Norton as the self-confident actor whose inner core is not so strong when he’s not on stage. He and Michael Keaton have some really intense scenes together, very well played by both.

Inarritu has proven himself to be an excellent screenwriter and director. Birdman walked away with four Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Original Screenplay, Best Director, and Best Cinematography for Emmanuel Lubezki.

I recommend Birdman for anyone interested in the theater, as well as the psychology of the inner creative self. The film is rated R for language throughout, some sexual content and brief violence. It is not a film for children.