#this is a very long and waffly film review

[redtulipslove]

The King (and what I liked about it)

I went into this feeling a little worried due to a) this not being my usual type of film and b) the negative reviews that I’d read

So it was a relief to come out of the film having enjoyed and being invested in the story from the start.  And if you haven't already seen it on a big screen, I'd recommend you do, because it's a film made for that.

I saw it twice in less than 24 hours and both screenings were unique because: Screening 1 had the cast introduce the film (with Ben Mendolsohn stealing the show by filming everything, acting drunk as a skunk and admitting he got a hard on when he first saw Timothee - T's reaction to that was priceless).

Screening 2 had subtitles and so I was able to pick up on things I'd missed in thefirst screening.

The story is simple - T plays Prince Hal, who takes on the English throne when his father dies, and has to deal with a lot of stuff. But he does this reluctantly as all he wants to do is drink, sleep around and get up to no good with his BFF, Falstaff. 

I could write ten posts about Timothee in this film, and most of them would consist of me repeating myself about how good he is, how good his accent is (it slips a few times but overall was very impressive), how amazed I was to find out he did his own stunts during the battle scenes (I could have sworn they used stunt doubles), and how I was constantly distracted from the story dueto how beautiful he looked. There should have been warnings for that. I sometimes had to drag myself back into the story after staring so long at his face - there were a lot of close ups, and let me tell you, a close up of T’s face as Prince Hal on a big screen is a wonder to behold. 

There are a lot of battle scenes, which are epic, loud and chaotic, giving you a sense of what it must have been like to be in the middle of it. They’re realistically gruesome too, and the sounds of messy deaths are very clear. It was a brutal world these people inhabited, and the audience are not shielded from that.      And there was lots of mud.  So much mud.

There are quiet moments too and they are just as affecting in their own way.   Hal is constantly having to watch his back due to not knowing who he can or cant trust.  One of his advisors turns out to be the biggest betrayer of all, and the scene where he is caught out by Hal is so tense I got goosebumps.  At least he has Falstaff, who Hal relies on heavily.  Joel Edgerton is brilliant in this role, I totally believed in him as a character, and there is great chemistry between him and Hal.  He also does a fantastic Northern British accent, which was spot on.  (I would have said he was the comedy element of the story, but that was before R Patz showed up)

There are some wonderful supporting characters that need mentioning too.  BenMendolsohn is great asHenry.He's not in it for long, but he makes himself known and you remember him well after he's gone.  I was surprised at how affecting LilyRose Depp was as Catherine, the woman Hal goes on to marry. She is only in the film for a few minutes, but she makes the most of it, and really captivates the screen. She's a strong, female character I'd like to have seen more of (the only other major female character is Philippa, Hal's sister, but she's hardly in it).  Sean Harris plays William, one of Hal's advisers, and he is brilliant too. He is in the very important and tense scene I mentioned earlier. My favourite supporting character has to be The Dauphin, played by Robert Pattinson.  He totally camped up his performance, playing with a very exaggerated French accent, butI loved every minute he was on screen.  He was having a ball playing the baddie and he did it justice.

Other things I liked: - Timothee speaking French - Timothee riding a horse - Timothee in heavy armour and chain mail fighting in the mud - Timothee dancing with a pair of bloomers on his head - Timothee in bed with a woman who kept calling him "Your Highness" (Hal didn't like that.  I liked it a bit too much).

TL;DR - I loved this film. Timothee makes for a very handsome Prince.  There is lots of mud.