1925. King George V (Michael Gambon) is a little worried about England’s future. After all, his two sons Albert George (Colin Firth) and Edward (Guy Pearce) aren’t exactly king material. The articulate and charismatic Edward is more interested in women than his country where as the happily-married, family man George is a stammer who freaks out at the possibility of a public speech.
But even as a Prince, George needs to make public appearances and speeches so his wife Elizabeth (Helena Bonham Carter) tries to help him as much as he can by seeking all kinds of doctors and speech therapists. But nothing works and George is left frustrated and even with lower self-confidence.
Elizabeth finds speech therapist Lionel Logue (Geoffrey Rush) as her last resort. Lionel has firm principles, a friendly, no-BS attitude and he is highly confident that his unconventional methods can help anyone. With Edward taking the crown, George still needs to get rid of stammer so involuntarily decides to work with Logue. He would easily fire Logue, only he realizes that his methods are in fact working.
As Logue’s and George’s friendship develop and George makes some slow yet substantial progress, his worst nightmare comes true: the parliament wants to overthrow Edward and make George their king since Edward’s private life is against the Constitution. Edward unwillingly becomes the King and the pressure -to make both his friendship and patient-therapist relationship with Logue work – gets even higher. Can George handle being a King and all the expectations that come with his position?
**
If I need to use just one word to describe The King’s Speech, I’d use “delightful”. This movie is a total joy to watch: it is emotional, sweet, humane, well-acted, well-designed, well-written, funny and heart-warming. I absolutely adored both Geoffrey Rush’s and Colin Firth’s performances. Everybody else is really good too but it is the characters of Firth and Rush make this movie a sweetheart of a masterpiece.
You see, it’s rare to see a movie with such lovable, flawed England King- who is more than aware of his flaws. It is so easy to empathize with him. As wealthy as he is, he has no other friends than his wife and apart from his wife and kids, he really hasn’t been loved and respected. Now he has to be King because of his bloodline, a symbolic position that gives him no real power but just difficult responsibilities he hates.
Logue is a great character. His success is self-made. And as much as he likes his profession, he actually wants to be an actor but isn’t really considered leading role material. Which is funny, since we have been watching and enjoying Rush himself in both leading and supporting roles for years.
This movie is a must who loves to go back in time through travel movies, watch fine acting and get to like a King and feel bad for his problems, even he sometimes acts like a total jerk and risks the only real friendship he has.
8.5 on IMDB. Nope, I don’t think it is overrated. The absolute lowest rating I could give this film is an 8.
Directed by Tom Hooper, written by David Seidler. Colin Firth won Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Drama for his performance and Geoffrey Rush was also nominated for Best Supporting actor. The King’s Speech is nominated for 12 Oscars, including Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor, Art Direction, Cinematography, Costume Design, Director, Supporting Actress (Helena Bonham Carter),Best Screenplay and more.
Fun notes:
*This is Colin Firth’s second Oscar nomination. Last year, he was nominated for his performance in Tom Ford’s A Single Man. He was also nominated for Golden Globe, two awards he lost to Jeff Bridges.
*Jennifer Ehle, who plays Geoffrey Rush’s wife, is Colin Firth’s ex-girlfriend. They starred as Elizabeth Bennett and Mr. Darcy in 1995’s TV Series Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen adaptation) and dated for a while.
*Geoffrey Rush isn’t a stranger to Oscar nominations. He won Oscar for Best Actor in 1997 for his role in Shine. He was nominated for Best Actor for Quills and Best Supporting Actor for Shakespeare in Love. King’s Speech is his 4th nomination.
*This is Helena Bonham Carter’s second nomination. Her first was in 1997 for The Wings of the Dove, for Best Actress in a Leading Role.
*Helena Bonham Carter is with director Tim Burton and a frequent star of his movies. They have 2 kids together.
*Just like his character, Rush is also Australian.
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