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King George VI (Colin Firth) reluctantly takes advice from an Australian speech therapist (Geoffrey Rush) to fix his stutter in the fact-based drama “The King’s Speech.” |
Tom Hooper’s “The King’s Speech” is about many things, but mostly it’s about an insecure man who racks up the courage to put aside his pride to simply ask another man for help.
And for that difficult act of humility, he is rewarded with a nation’s gratitude, and perhaps more important, a lifetime of friendship.
This fact-based drama features two of the best, most fully realized film performances of the year by Colin Firth and Geoffrey Rush, backed up by David Seidler’s crisp and witty screenplay, Alexandre Desplat’s evocative score and an amazing movie set that’s not really a movie set at all, but an actual London apartment discovered by production designer Eve Stewart.
“The King’s Speech” details the unusual relationship that developed between England’s King George VI and an Australian speech therapist named Lionel Logue.
Early on, King George V (erstwhile Harry Potter professor Michael Gambon) underscores the importance of public speaking as a monarch, particularly when using high-tech radio to speak to the masses in the 1930s.
His son, Prince Albert, the Duke of York (Firth), lives in terror of public speaking because of a terrible stammer that has afflicted him since childhood.
He doesn’t worry too much about rallying people with his words. His older brother Prince Edward (the chameleonic Guy Pearce) is the heir to the throne, and he’s never at a loss for things to say.
But we already know about Edward, don’t we? The king who threw away his crown so he could marry his true, divorced love, a commoner an action that would put his brother on the throne? (Read more…)