Review of "The King's Speech"

The King's Speech (2010)
Directed by Tom Hooper
Written by David Seidler
Starring: Colin Firth, Geoffrey Rush, and Helena Bonham Carter
Review by Jennie Brouse



Synopsis: When his father dies and his brother are unable to be King, a relucant Duke becomes King George VI of Britain, which forces him to face his ultimate fear: making speeches to people around the world while having a stammer. In order to better his speech, King George starts taking lessons with an unlikely speech coach, who not only helps him with his stammer, but helps him become the person he really needs to be.

Review: Although Black Swan takes the prize for the strangest movie I've seen in 2010, The King's Speech takes the prize for being the most innovative. Although a serious movie at its heart, there were plenty of funny and endearing moments. And although all three of the main actors' performances were great, the relationship between King George VI (Colin Firth) and his speech coach Lionel Logue (Geoffrey Rush) was especially wonderful. The writing by David Seidler was fantastic as well, creating some very humorous moments between Lionel and King George (or Bertie, as Lionel calls him), as well as some very serious moments where the audience can see how important the relationship between Bertie and Lionel really is.

A particularly humorous moment occurs when the King goes along with Logue's unprecedented style of teaching, and begins to yell curse words, in order to get rid of his stammer. Logue also has the King rolling on the ground, laying on the ground with Bonham Carter sitting on his chest, making crazy noises and moving his tongue all-around, and, the best of all, singing.

While all of these things were done in order to better the King's speech, Logue also wanted to do these exercises in order to coerce the King into dicussing his life (because Logue believes that people's stammering results from an occurrence in their lives). This is one of the main reasons why Logue and the King develop such a strong relationship: because Logue sees that, to help the King overcome his stammer, he has to know him as a person to really be able to teach him something.

Overall, I'd say go see The King's Speech.  The strength of the screenplay by Seidler matched with the performances from Firth, Rush, and Bonham Carter make for a movie that should not be missed.

Overall Rating: 4/5

Upcoming Review: The Social Network (2010)