Jessica's Thoughts - The King (2019)
IMDb synopsis: Hal, wayward prince and heir to the English throne, is crowned King Henry V after his tyrannical father dies. Now the young king must navigate palace politics, the war his father left behind, and the emotional strings of his past life.
Let me start by saying that I don’t understand Timothée Chalamet. I had no clue why everyone seemed so obsessed with him or enamored by him. This scrawny, barely legal boy with ’90s Johnny Depp hair and a sharp jawline… Really?
I never got the pleasure of seeing Chalamet in Call Me By Your Name (yes, I know, get off your high horse), so this was only my second time experiencing him on screen. His diluted performance in Ladybird just made me despise him since the character was so disgustingly chill and ass hole-y.
All in all, I didn’t see the appeal, and so I wasn’t tremendously excited to see him in The King. But did the boy deliver? Yeah, pretty sure he did.
I think, in general, my opinion is that everything was just fine, as I say with a shrug. The costuming, the time period, the soundtrack, the action (when there was some) has been done so many times before that it’s become blasé to make a film about a British monarch. It’s pretty much a given that, unless it’s outrageously excellent, anything presented onscreen is okay.
Written by director David Michôd and Joel Edgerton (who starred alongside Chalamet for portions of the movie), the plot, regrettably, moves at a snail’s pace, and for the majority of the movie it’s unclear what will be the crux of the storyline. It hilariously mimics how Chalamet’s Henry V is unsure of himself and his reasoning for going to war with France. (I’m presenting this in the best light possible because otherwise this movie has no direction and its beginning, middle, and end feel listless and ambiguous.)
In what I’ve come to understand as a painfully accurate historical movie about the beginning of King Henry V’s reign, Chalamet seems to have made lemonade. The boring bits and slow sequences, the gray color grading, and maniacally bad hair on EVERYONE gave way to a decent climax (which I believe to be the final battle). Unfortunately, the movie didn’t end there, it rambled on for another 20 minutes or so.
Robert Pattinson turns out a bizarre and funny performance as the Dauphine of France. When he popped up, I couldn’t believe it was him underneath this mop of greasy, long, blond hair. And the French accent? Brilliant at best, comical at worst. But what I really mean to say is, he stole the show every time he was onscreen, and I loved every minute of his inexplicable character.
Earlier I said Chalamet delivered, but up until Pattinson’s introduction, he played Henry V close the chest—a very muted performance, calculated delivery of his lines, very intense. I found it quite boring. But pre-battle speeches have a way of bringing out the Academy winner in every actor. Mel Gibson did it in Braveheart. Viggo did it in LOTR. Russell Crowe did it in Gladiator… and so on and so forth. Many great actors have risen to the challenge of delivering the perfect pre-battle speech.
Here, Chalamet unleashed. “You are England!” he declares. “It is you, and it is the space between you. Fight not for yourselves; fight for that space! Fill that space! Make it tissue! Make it mass! Make it impenetrable! Make it yours! Make it England!” This scene was beautiful to see and a joy to behold.
This movie wasn’t perfect, but it made me a believer. Looking forward to seeing what else Chalamet dishes out!
3/5
