At the Weekend LibraryGirl and myself went to the Connaught Theatre to watch two different films with one thing in common both lead males have been nominated for the Best Actor Academy Award. They are 127 Hours and The King's Speech and both were fantastic films with brilliant performances.
127 Hours is based on the true story of Aron Ralston a climber who whilst enjoying the canyons of Utah gets his arm trapped between a canyon wall and a massive stone. His hand is crushed and he cannot move from the spot he is trapped in. Left with barely any water, hardly any food and only a cheap 'made in china' knife he tries to survive the life threatening situation he is in. As he tries to escape and begins to grasp how bad the situation is he contemplates his life and nearly gives up until he removes his arm, on the fifth day he is trapped, with the now blunt knife. He then hikes eight miles before he is finally rescued. It is a fabulous story of human resource and survival told incredibly well by Danny Boyle but realised in a virtuoso performance by Franco.
I was not surprised to read that James Franco was nominated for the Oscar after watching his performance in the Cinema, in fact after watching his performance I just decided he should get the Oscar because it just was so good. He basically did a one man play on film laying a whole character bare, a whole human life for us to gaze at. He went through so many changes in the 93 minutes of the film, which isn't something out of the ordinary but it was when you consider that this represented 127 hours of one man's life. It was mesmerising to see this cocky mountaineering guy get trapped and then have to face the realities of what his life choices had caused him as he waited to die. Franco portrayed a man who understood his situation and was dealing with it in the best way he could but he also showed the intelligence of the character who only about 24 hours into his ordeal realises the only way he can get out is to hack off his arm yet also knows he doesn't have the right tools. You saw everything that Franco was thinking, every through line, every thought was a real thought it seemed. There was no faking or falsity in the performance (there couldn't be because of the way it was shot) but it still required the great skill of a fine actor like James Franco to pull it off. 127 hours is now one of my favourite films because of the performance of Franco and the excellent source material and script co-written by Danny Boyle. Will Franco win the Oscar? Probably not because this year is Firth's year it seems and I also think that the performance Firth gave in 'The King's Speech' was just... well shall we get to that now?
The King's Speech is without a shadow of a doubt one of the best British Films in years and has rightly earned a huge amount of accolade. Charting the problems of the soon to be King George the VI this film starts with a scene based in the old Wembley Stadium where the then Duke of York stutters through a speech at the end of the year's Empire Exhibition and leads us up to his first WWII speech to the people of the UK and the British Empire. The Duke of York is played by the brilliant Colin Firth who has really hit his stride it seems recently with his performances in films. Colin Firth plays the conflicted Prince Albert who has had a stammer since his early years, which has been made worse by the need for him to speak over the radio to the people of the Empire in his role as one of the Royal Family. When his brother refuses to stop his dalliances with Mrs Wallis Simpson it becomes more obvious Albert may have to take the throne over and it is of vital importance that the King not stammer. The plot may not sound great but its the performances that make this film the sensation it is and the performance by Firth is just a beautiful thing. Essentially the role is this: a man who has to keep his life private yet remain in the public eye, must be diplomatic at all times, be a servant of the people and most of all live up to everyone's expectations no matter how big or small. It is a very large ask for anyone to do that job and to be all those things but Colin Firth portrays them all very well. His performance reminded me of what I heard Dame Judi Dench say on A:M a few weeks ago 'Someone once said to me, don't try and play all the part at once, play it a bit at a time and hopefully by the end you will have something that's whole' which I took to mean that there are many facets to a character but you should never try to do the whole character all at once. After all where does the character go in scene two if you have revealed all in scene one? Colin Firth did this perfectly, showing the insecurities and passions of a man who was not raised to be King but who became one of our greatest and taught our Queen how to be arguably the greatest monarch since Queen Victoria. Side by side there isn't much between the performances of Franco and Firth, both played real people and both showed why they are so well respected as performers. However for me the problems that Aron was facing in 127 Hours was in our faces the whole way through the film and we couldn't get away from it and so Franco had everything just hanging out there from the moment of the accident. In 'The King's Speech' because of the very nature of the subject and the character Firth played he could be more guarded and downplay the drama of the films situation. There was more depth to Firth's performance than in Franco's and that is why I believe he deserves the Oscar nod.
Both these films are phenomenal so run run run to the Cinema and don't come back until you have seen both!
