Quick Movie Review: The King's Speech (2010)

The King’s Speech (2010)


Bottomline: The best movie I’ve seen in 2010 (and, yes, that includes Toy Story 3)

Where Can I See This Amazing Film? It’s playing theaters right now. Go. See. Now.

Why is this movie Rated R? As near as I can tell, the only reason this film is Rated R is because as part of the speech therapy, Logue has the Prince curse – it starts off relatively mild then gets more obscene as he’s pressed. But that’s it. There is no nudity. No sex. No violence.

Any other films you can recommend with Colin Firth? Absolutely. I would highly recommend Love Actually (2003). Many reviewers would point you to A Single Man (2009) in which Firth is brilliant and was nominated for Best Actor; however, the film is dreadful and I would not wish it upon anyone.

QMR Opinion:
On Jan. 20, 1936, at the age of 70, England’s King George V died. As such, his eldest son, Prince Edward (6.23.1894 – 5.28.72) ascended the throne. The problem? Prince Edward was in love with a twice-divorced American woman named Wallis Simpson (6.19.1896 – 4.24.1986). After assuming the throne and making noise that he was planning to marry Ms. Simpson, there was much consternation amongst the Royal Family and the Church of England because, as head of the church, Edward could do no such thing. So he had to make a choice – the Throne or Ms. Simpson. As we all know, he chose Ms. Simpson. So on Dec. 11, 1936, King Edward VII abdicated the throne, which meant his brother, Prince Albert became King. He ascended the throne as King George VI (12.14.1895 – 2.6.52) alongside his wife, Queen Elizabeth (The Queen Mother) (8.4.00 – 3.30.02). It is their daughter, Queen Elizabeth II (born 4.21.26) who sits on the throne today. But here’s the rub, Prince Albert/King George VI had an almost debilitating stammer and was being ushered into the public eye at the same time the “wireless” was becoming commonplace.

While this doesn’t sound like the end of the world, the film does a brilliant job of setting the tone with showing Prince Albert (Colin Firth) struggling to make a speech and making it clear that as England gets drawn into WWII, they needed a non-stammering King. After a few tries with speech therapists, Elizabeth (Helena Bonham Carter) introduces the Prince to Lionel Logue (Geoffrey Rush), an Australian-born self-taught speech therapist. And here is where the movie focuses. Using history as its foundation, the film shows the growing relationship between the two men and their partnership in working to mitigate the King’s stammer.

There are moments where everything comes together to make a film an absolute delight – subject matter, direction, cinematography, screenplay, acting, etc. This is one of those films. Colin Firth, Helena Bonham Carter and Geoffrey Rush are absolutely marvelous and the chemistry is palpable. The writing by David Seidler is tight, suspenseful, and, often, funny. Tom Hooper’s direction has the film moving along at a brisk pace. I cannot remember ever being bored. For me, this is easily the best movie of 2010, and you would be more than remiss if you chose to not see it on the big screen.