the King's Speech

[kindkit]

I finally got around to watching The King's Speech and enjoyed it a lot. Colin Firth is very good, good enough that I forgave him for being too old for the role and noticeably older than Guy Pearce, who is supposed to be Firth's elder brother. I'm not a Geoffrey Rush fan, but he was less annoying here than usual.

It's a good story, although as I quickly found out on Wikipedia, the real history of Bertie's work with Lionel Logue is less dramatic. I particularly enjoyed the skewering of the vapid, Nazi-sympathizing Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson, whose relationship is nauseatingly over-romanticized in most other stories about this period.

Does anybody have fanfic recommendations? I've looked on AO3 but there's nothing there that works for me. I'm interested in Bertie-centric gen, Bertie/Lionel slash or friendship fic so long as the author can make it emotionally convincing and not just go straight for the porn, or anything that follows up on what I thought were some pretty obvious hints of incestuous something between Bertie and David.

Comments

[lilacsigil]

I had no idea Guy Pearce was in this, or that they took the Queen Mother's view of Edward VIII (i.e. that he was generally horrible)! That makes me want to watch it vastly more.

[kindkit]

I liked it a lot more than I was expecting to. It's intelligently written and not the mess of heartwarming, life-affirming sentimentality that one expects from Oscar-winning movies. Guy Pearce does a great job as Edward VIII, showing the dash and charm as well as the shallow selfishness, and I think you'll like Helena Bonham Carter as the (future) Queen Mother.