Serious Movie Lover

Colin Firth and Helena Bonham Carter in The King's Speech

THE KING’S SPEECH (2010/IN THEATERS) Remember this? The People’s Choice from the 2008 Toronto Film Festival was Slumdog Millionaire, which went on to be the big Oscar winner in 2009. 2010’s People’s Choice is The King’s Speech, which tells the true story of King George VI (Colin Firth) and his battle to overcome a severe stutter. The movie is very solid and holds a 97% Rotten Tomatoes rating among top critics. It’s a crowd-pleaser also and can be enjoyed by the entire family, exhibiting all the best aspects of British Monarchy films—gorgeous sets, period costumes, real world details combined with strong casting. Firth is seriously impressive in the role; he is the logical Oscar winner this year, unless James Franco takes it for 127 Hours, ironically directed by Slumdog’s Danny Boyle. Firth was up last year for his incredible work in A Single Man so King’s Speech marks two in a row—thank heavens Firth is getting these great roles. Enough of Bridget Jones sequels and fluff like What a Girl Wants. Equally strong are Helena Bonham Carter as Queen Elizabeth (the Queen Mother to the current reigning Queen Elizabeth, not so favorably presented in The Queen as we may recall) and Geoffrey Rush as Lionel Logue, the real life Australian who enables the King to overcome (or at least manage) his affliction. Also lovely in small parts are Guy Pearce as Edward VIII who famously abdicated the throne to marry a thrice divorced American (Wallis Simpson—played as a horrific socialite here by Eve Best). And in a lovely touch, Derek Jacoby, who stuttered so well in I, Claudius, is cast as the Archbishop of Canterbury. King’s Speech has already won 5 British Indpendent Film Awards (Best Film, Best Screenplay, Best Actor for Firth, Supporting Actor for Rush and Supporting Actress for Bonham Carter). On to the Oscars!

Grade: A Solid.
BTW: Yesterday’s Talk of the Nation on NPR featured a discussion of stuttering and some very complimentary remarks about the film from Kristin Chmela, a Speech Pathologist. I found the following most interesting:
“And the other one that I loved was how they filmed it. When he was stuttering and they put the camera as if the viewer of the movie was the person stuttering so that you could watch the reactions of the people listening, that look in their eye, the shift in their body language. That is something I think all stutterers recognize. And I thought that was extremely powerful to get a sense of what that might feel like when you’re watching people watching you, and you cannot speak.”
To hear the rest of the show, follow the link.