The Kings Speech

The King’s Speech
Starring Colin Firth, Geoffrey Rush, Helena Bonham Carter
Review by John Jamieson
9.4/10 dropps

When The King’s Speech opens it is the year 1925, and King George V (Michael Gambon) has asked his son, Prince Albert, Duke of York (Colin Firth) to address an excited crowd in Wembley at the end of the British Empire Exhibition. The atmosphere is intense; a red light blinks three times as it counts down to transmission. All eyes are fixed expectantly on the prince. It is his first time speaking in public. As the future king talks, he begins to stammer.

The King’s Speech is a truly great film. Scholars of contemporary British history will note that Prince Albert’s story is a remarkable one, not least of which because of it’s trying circumstances. Albert’s older brother King Edward (Guy Pearce) has feckless regard for his responsibilities, and it quickly becomes apparent to the monarchy that the stuttering Prince Albert may have to be the one to uphold the responsibilities of the crown and his forefathers. His wife, the future Queen Elizabeth (Helena Bonham Carter), seeks professional help for her husband, and she ultimately comes across the “unconventional” Lionel Logue (Geoffrey Rush). Lionel Logue is not only a commoner, a failed actor and (gasp!) an Australian – he isn’t even a certified speech doctor.

World War II approaches and it is Logue and Albert’s unlikely friendship that forms the crux of the film. Though The King’s Speech follows the familiar trappings of films constructed upon the bond of two men, director Tom Hooper and writer David Seidler construct the film so marvelously that you will likely neither notice nor care. The performances are uniformly top-notch, even down to the role of Winston Churchill (played by Timothy Spall in a performance hardly more extensive than a cameo).

Every aspect of this film is well-crafted. Though it is most certainly Oscar bait (in the same way that The Queen was in 2006), it is nevertheless a masterful work of dramatic nonfiction that deserves the accolades that are coming its way. I promise that if you see it, you’ll forget the last time you cared so deeply about the plight of a man, much less a king.

-John Jamieson