The King's Speech vs. W./E.

                  A brief primer for anyone not familiar with the Abdication Crisis of Edward VIII of England:  When he succeeded his father George V as King of the British Empire in 1936 Edward was technically a bachelor, but had spent several years in the company of Wallis Simpson, an American socialite.  As their relationship advanced it became clear that Edward intended to marry Wallis, which was a huge no-go for the monarchy.  She was a foreigner and a commoner, she seemed to share Edward’s more modern views on how the monarchy should operate – namely by taking a public stance on political matters.  She was also once-divorced and technically still married to her second husband, which would make marrying her religiously tricky, since among his other duties Edward was also the Governor of the Church of England.  Rumors flew that she had a sexual dysfunction having something to do with her time spent in “Oriental brothels,” that she had been involved with men other than Edward during her separation from her husband, that she was a gold digger, and so forth.  After many discussions with Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin about his options, Edward decided to give up the throne to pursue his life with Simpson. 

                  Edward and Wallis did eventually marry, and spent much of their time shuttling back and forth from America to France and living off an allowance given to them by the monarchy, and some questionable sales of family real estate.  Never one known for his political savvy or subtlety, Edward made waves during WWII with some remarks that were deemed as sympathetic to the Nazi regime.  Though he and Wallis both denied that they supported Hitler, it was a black cloud over their already tarnished reputations for the rest of their lives.  From the 1950s on they lived mostly under the radar.

Edward & Wallis

                  Meanwhile, Edward’s younger brother Prince Albert became King George VI, a title he never expected nor wanted.  As a child he was often sickly, easily frightened and had a stammer that followed him into adulthood.  Prior to becoming King he had enjoyed a relatively peaceful and quiet life with his wife Elizabeth and two daughters.  Suddenly his family was thrust into the spotlight during a time of international turmoil and after a major royal scandal.  He wrote to Edward that he had taken over “a rocking throne” and tried “to make it steady again.”  Despite the decline of the imperial power of the United Kingdom and the hard years of the war, under his leadership and by his example the popularity of the monarchy was renewed.

George & Elizabeth

                  I know that The King’s Speech won a bunch of Academy Awards while W./E. was pretty universally panned by critics and was directed by Madonna.  I still think it’s worth seeing both of them.  They offer different points of view on the same story, and not only by which family member each movie focuses on; they’re also stylistically opposite one another.

As I said in my original mini-review, The King’s Speech is a big, warm, fluffy blanket of a movie.  Colin Firth and Geoffrey Rush are delightful as Edward and his speech therapist, Lionel Logue.  There’s an undercurrent of desperation to both characters – Edward is about to announce his country’s involvement in a second World War and must lead with confidence, Lionel quietly yearns to prove his mettle as a therapist despite his lack of formal training.  HBC is kind of phoning it in but I love her so who cares.  It won’t make you think, it won’t surprise you, but it’s nice and lovely heart-warming and soft-focused and comforting.

          W./E. is a completely different ballgame.   The film goes back and forth between the stories of Wallis Simpson and Wally Winthrop, a ‘90s New Yorker fumbling through a troubled marriage who becomes increasingly obsessed with her namesake.  It’s really easy to screw up a movie that jumps between timelines and I thought it impressively done.  It’s slick and sexy, the music is excellent, the clothing is AMAZING, and the cinematography beautiful and cool – as in “blue-toned”, but also as in “hip.”  It features some fine performances by lesser-known actors like Abbie Cornish, Oscar Isaac, James D’Arcy and Andrea Riseborough.  Wallis and Edward’s potential Nazi sympathies are glossed over a bit too quickly, it’s melodramatic and overdone at times and the ending is a bit weird and hokey but I didn’t care.  It’s worth it for the dancing scenes alone.  Go in with low expectations and you’ll be pleasantly surprised.