The King's Speech (2010)Director: Tom Hooper
Starring: Colin Firth, Geoffrey Rush, Helena Bonham Carter
Haven't heard about The King's Speech? Well, unless you've been hiding under a rock for the last few weeks, of course you have. From the Oscar-worthy performance of Colin Firth to the touching delicacy of Tom Hooper's direction, The King's Speech is just about the most talked-about film of the moment. The story of King George VI as he tries desperately to overcome a crippling speech impediment, it might not seem like the most likely tale for a blockbuster movie. But this is one film certainly worthy of its regal hype.
The scene is the late 1920s and King George V is on the throne. However, second son Bertie (Colin Firth) and his wife, Elizabeth (Helena Bonham Carter), Duke and Duchess of York, are fully in the public eye doing all things Royal. However, thanks to Bertie's painfully bad stammer, public speaking is a nightmare for both him and his audience. Determined to cure him, Elizabeth approaches Lionel Logue (Geoffrey Rush), a less than orthodox speech therapist and from the moment he meets the Prince, so begins an odd, often turbulent, relationship. Soon to be a loving friendship.
Hooper kick-starts the film with a disastrously embarrassing speech from Prince Albert - struggling to get through the first sentence, it's like watching a child at their first nativity forget the one line they spent weeks learning ('No room at the inn' - obviously). It's heartbreaking and you're instantly on the side of team supreme, willing Bertie to get out his words. Nevertheless, the humour card is also played pretty swiftly in a scene involving Colin Firth with balls in his mouth - priceless. The film continues along these same lines, mixing emotional frustration with some good old fashioned one-liners - no mean feat when you consider our hero takes that bit longer to get to the punchline.
Firth, as predicted, gives us the performance of his career. Maintaining a regal strength and willingness to overcome the obstacle, there's also the ordinary human frustration, the lack of self-esteem, the loving family man and the prince fearful of looming responsibility. Bertie's brother, David (Guy Pearce) is a sort of mini-villain (ish) in that he seems determined to shunt Kingship onto his younger brother just so he can marry twice-divorced American, Wallis Simpson (Eve Best). But Bonham Carter's Elizabeth is the perfect proverbial rock to the stumbling Bertie.
Bonham Carter and Rush carry much of the film's humour. Bonham Carter's timing is impeccable and that well-to-do accent has never suited a character so well. Rush's Lionel Logue is warm and loveable and anyone who can make a royal swear so elegantly has a glorious thumbs up from me. Of course with the abdication of Edward VIII, comes the realisation of Bertie's horrors and some of the more moving scenes of the film follow as we get ever closer to Bertie's coronation as King George VI.
Since seeing the love for this film at the BFI London Film Festival in October, this has been on everyone's cinema wish list. Beautiful, sensitive and heart-warming, rooting for a royal has never been more fun in a story so wonderfully depicted. For Firth's performance, for Hooper's elegance and for all round great British drama, this is an easy 5 stars. Lovely.
Please comment if you have anything to add to this review of 'The King's Speech'.
2 comments:
I think Geoffrey Rush's performance was pretty awesome too. When Bertie makes his final speech of the film with just the two of them in the room you could really feel the tension and at the end you almost expected the audience to clap.
Agreed. Not enough is said about Geoffrey Rush and Helena Bonham Carter's roles in the movie - my review ironically being no exception. The two of them shone and the film wouldn't be what it is without them.
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