King's Speech Review

Title: The King’s SpeechMPAA Rating: RDirector: Tom Hooper

Starring: Colin Firth, Geoffrey Rush, Helena Bonham CarterRuntime: 1 hour 51 minutes

What It Is: The story of how England’s King George the VI (Colin Firth, in an Oscar-Winning turn) works to overcome a terrible stutter that he’s had since he was a young child. When he first meets Australian actor turned speech defect therapist Lionel Lough (Rush, also in an Oscar turn) the then Duke of York is under the impression that

1. his defect cannot be fixed, and
2. that this man is an ACTUAL doctor.

Turns out both are wrong. Mr. Lough or Lionel as he prefers uses various methods in order to help “Bertie” fix his impediment. What the two men get in return is a lifelong friendship. Now George VI is dealing with the death of his father George V, as well as his brother King Edward the VII’s (Guy Pearce) affair with a married woman. All this while trying to get over the hump he’s dealing with. To make matters worse Hitler’s Germany is on the verge of war with the King’s nation. This means that our bumbling monarch must make his first of what would be many wartime speeches.

What We Think: Simply put this is an incredible piece of cinema. Before seeing it I didn’t buy into all the Oscar hype it received, nor did I understand the reasoning for it winning so many. I do now, since seeing this movie, respect it and the academy's decision to call this the Best Picture of the year. Firth was in full form. For me, however, it was Geoffrey Rush that absolutely dazzled. He didn’t win the Oscar, but I’ll be damned if he didn’t make a great argument. Helena Bonham Carter also shines as George’s wife Elizabeth. In addition to the principles, there were many other brilliant performances by Timothy Spell as Winston Churchill and Michael Gambon as King Edward V.

Our Grade: A+, When it comes to brilliance The King’s Speech goes above and beyond just about everywhere. Tom Hooper’s direction is subtle enough to leave a fingerprint but not overbearing. He instead allows his brilliant battery of actors to do exactly what they do… marvel us. While not too many films can claim to be perfect and this one certainly isn’t it is as close as we’ve gotten this year. So every Golden statue The Weinstein Company has from this film is a well-deserved homage to a delightful cinematic experience. In what I consider the best period piece I’ve seen this year, or in quite some time.