Starring: Colin Firth, Geoffrey Rush, Helena Bonham Carter, Guy Pearce, Timothy Spall
Directed By:Tom Hooper
Run Time: 1 hr 51 minutes
The King's Speech is about England's second in line prince named Albert (played by Firth), who had a stammering problem that made it difficult for him to make speeches in public. When his brother King Edward (played by Pearce) decides that he'd rather marry a twice divorced woman than sit on the throne, Albert must become king. In an age where radio is flourishing, Albert must be vocally appealing to the public and thus seeks the aid of Lionel Louge (played by Rush).
Ah, Oscar season is upon us. Since both Colin Firth and Geoffrey Rush are nominated for Oscars (and probably other aspects of the film are, too), I had to see this one. I'm always a sucker for behind-the-scenes look at the lives of the royal family (The Queen was wonderful in that way). It was quite charming to see current Queen Elizabeth as a small child and interesting to see that even though her father was second in line to the throne, her fate would be changed by her uncle's abdiction, too. If her uncle had stayed on the throne and had a child, she would never have been queen.
I was rather awe-struck by the amount of hugs and kisses Bertie (Albert, played by Firth) bestowed upon his children. He seemed like such a warm man, even though his own father instructed his brothers to make fun of his stammering as a child. I found his wife's sense of royality quite interesting. She was more for being proper and correcting those who misunderstood how to behave in front of royal than the man who had actually been raised as royalty. Bertie let things go; Elizabeth (played by Carter) did not. Bertie let Lionel call him Bertie; I highly doubt Elizabeth would have let anyone call her anything other than "Your Royal Highness." In fact, when she first met an awestruck commoner, she replied very simply and straight-forwardly, "It's your royal highness for the initial address and ma'am thereafter."
Although I'm sure any good actor can fake a stammer, I really think Colin Firth did a wonderful job making us feel his pain. His delivery was astounding. The pauses, the look of terror and uncomfort in his eyes. I really felt bad for the poor guy. And considering it was only radio, couldn't someone else have read the speeches for him instead and kept it a royal secret? Of course, he did have a lot of public speaking engagements. If I were in the audience and not knowing any better as a commoner, I totally would have gone right up to him and told him to take his time and tried to hug him... before security hauled me off never to be seen again. It didn't seem as though his audiences were very sympathetic. Perhaps they saw the stammering as a sign of weakness.
This was quite a good movie. A bit slow. I kept waiting for him to give that one perfect speech. Okay, is this it? How about now? Now? By the end I was gritting my teeth and saying, "Okay, now this one better be it." It does drag on a bit. There are a lot of speeches. But the wonderful thing about it is the man kept trying! For most of the movie, he's simply second in line. He's not king or even a glimmer of being king so there's no real push for him to be "cured." He's doing it for himself which is very sweet.
Oooh, ooh! I do find it funny that there are several remarks made in the movie about Lionel being Australian. They make fun of his accent. He's played by an Australian so there are extra jabs in there. The really funny thing is that Guy Pearce, who plays King Edward, is Australian/New Zealander (born in NZ, raised in Australia). No one made fun of his accent!
Although I have yet to see a lot of the other performances that were nominated for Best Actor, I'm inclined to say that Colin Firth deserves the win. I felt his pain. I think that's a sign of a good performance. Good picture for a rainy day (if the Oscar season has already passed you by).
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