Matt’s Award Season Review: ‘The Kings Speech’ is F-Fa-Fantastic

GRADE: A

Ok, the title is obviously a play on the main character’s issues with speaking ‘properly.’ Off the bat, I just have to say, Colin Firth is such a great actor. His performance in this film as King George VI, or Bertie as he is nicknamed, is so powerful it evokes almost every emotion out of the audience possible.

Watching Firth’s character struggle with a speech impediment was hard to swallow for 118 minutes. But that is part of the draw of this film, making the audience as desperate for resolution as the main character. I yearned for Bertie to properly manufacture the words he so desperately tried to deliver while talking with government officials, and most of all, while he was making important speeches to huge crowds. My attachment to this character’s monumental struggle is what made this film so great.

The Kings Speech is based on true events in English monarchy leading up to World War II. As King George V is in the twilight of his life, nearing death, the royal family prepares for a successor to be the new head of the Catholic church. The eldest brother David is in line to be King, but is set to marry the woman he loves, but a woman twice divorced. The Catholic Church of course does not approve of divorce and definitely will not allow their King to marry a divorcee. Next in line is the bumbling Bertie who cannot bring himself to speak even the simplest sentences to his peers. Assuming the title of King of England, Bertie must make speeches to millions over the radio acting as a wartime rallying figure.

Bertie has tried every remedy from all sorts of doctors and physicians to fix his speaking problem. He consults Geoffry Rush’s character Lionel Logue as a last ditch effort to stymie his stammer. The duo works tirelessly to determine the cause for the speech irregularity and to ready Bertie for public speaking.

The substantial amount of time spent together forges a bond between the two characters making them friends. The connection between these two characters is what really makes The King’s Speech soar. Firth and Rush have such a strong back and forth you can feel the animosity between the two in the beginning as they argue and their strong friendship towards the end as they become close friends.

The production team crafted an environment that felt like it was really the early 1900′s. The costumes, the sets, the hairstyles, the dialogue, all of these immersed the viewer in this time period. The viewer forgets they are watching a movie and finds themselves rallying around Firth and his mission of ascending as a leader his country can look up to. I also want to give a nod to screenwriter David Seidler for creating a compelling script, filled with nothing but dialogue, that remained captivating the entire film. His script was very funny at times, but most of all, it developed the main characters thoroughly; by the end of the film the viewer felt a connection with all the central figures in this story.

My last shout out goes to Helan Bonham Carter. Her hand has been in so many of the great films over the past ten years, and The King’s Speech is another good fit for the 45 year-old actress. Her ability to morph into a role sets her apart in the Hollywood circuit. Her characters from film to film rarely resemble each other because Carter transforms into a different persona for each role she takes on. In The King’s Speech, she plays the sympathetic and supporting wife to King George VI. Her character helped drive Bertie towards the solution of fixing his speech impairment.

Overall, you can obviously tell I loved The King’s Speech. Before I went to the film I was excessively tired from lack of sleep the previous night. A film with a strict diet of dialouge can oftentimes be boring, and in this case, lull me to sleep. That was not the case. I was riveted with emotion that pulled me towards the well rounded characters until the ending credits. Consider that the true testament to this film’s greatness.

The dialogue was packed full of action, suspense, drama, love, friendship, and most off all, a stutter. The mission for Bertie to speak confidently to the masses in a time when his country needed console is what propels this film to the finish line. As a viewer, it is so difficult to watch him struggle to get his mind and mouth to work in synchronization. By the end, the overwhelming emotion of triumph is enough to have any casual movie goer leaving the theater uplifted.

What Should You Do? Didn’t you read anything I’ve said up to this point? Go see it!