Writer’s blog up to Thursday night, and then – thanks to a
movie! – the subject presents itself quite logically: British actor COLIN FIRTH. I'll stick to the films I've seen, as anyone with a brain and the Interweb can access IMDB.
The movie in question is Magic in the Moonlight, a recent film with Emma Stoned as the female
love interest. CF plays a Houdini-type
character, a professional magician who crusades to expose mystics and psychics
as fakes. It takes place in 1928 in Berlin
(briefly) then mainly in the south of France.
He meets his match in a cute American girl (Stone), Sophie, who seems to
pull up all sorts of privy information which she normally would not know. Despite his inclinations he still falls in love
with her, and remains in love with her even after uncovering the truth (pool
halls are TROUBLE in River City!). Well
done!
My first exposure to him – movie-wise that is – was Fever Pitch, a light romantic comedy
about a London school teacher who is obsessed with local Premier League soccer
team Arsenal. Note: I REFUSE to see the
Jimmy Fallon US version about the Boston Red Sox (ZZZ). He
falls in love with a fellow teacher. Ironically,
he thinks she views him as a “yob” (lower class scumbag) for his Arsenal
passion, while in fact she sees him as bourgeois, using his Arsenal passion to
pretend to be a yob. Anyhow. Mark Strong plays his best friend.
Most recently he was in the Kingsman movies. He’s steering
away from a James Bond role in that regard, cultivating his own style. Well
done. [And Mark Strong is back. But no mentions of Arsenal. Too bad.]
Earlier he won praise for The King’s Speech, in which he plays George VI, the King between “abdicate
to screw the American woman” Edward VIII and our current Queen Elizabeth
II. G6 had a bad stutter, which he had to
overcome with the help of a speech therapist played by Geoffrey Rush, probably
better known from the “Pirates of the Caribbean” films opposite Johnny Depp. In particular the speech was expressly
intended to warn everyone about Hitler, at a time which the Make Germany Great
crowd – and their admirers in England – were inclined to overlook the Austrian’s
minor totalitarian issues because he was an acceptable foil to Stalin. How about this: neither Nazi Germany nor Soviet Russia are
acceptable models for a decent country?
Firth is also Mark Darcy in the Bridget Jones films (Renee Zellweger). The original BJD film is a plot-wise ripoff
of Jane Austen’s “Pride & Prejudice”.
Well before another “Pirates of the Caribbean” alumni, Keira Knightly,
came around, there was a BBC production putting Colin Firth as Darcy. The BJD people were so impressed with Firth
in that role that they basically had him update the character to modern day London
for the Zellweger films. Needless to say
he does all of them very well.
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