User Reviews

King's Speech is one movie where the story takes a back seat and actors come out and perform. Though the movie belongs to Colin Firth but the performances of Helena Bonham Carter and Geoffrey Rush are extraordinary. The prime reason behind such brilliant quality of performances is the screenplay. The story is dull but some funny lines/ situations here and there makes the movie a must watch. Above i have mentioned that the movie belongs to Colin Firth, the reason being not just his performance but the amazing consistency and hold of the character. Sparing one scene where Colin Firth cries in front of Helena Bonham, his performance is brilliant. I believe if things go well than Colin Firth is on his way to win the Oscar for best actor. The on screen chemistry between Colin Firth and Geoffery Rush is brilliant and some of the scene are really funny.

Wishing Colin Firth luck for the Oscars....

The award season brouhaha seems focused on Firth's performance, and excellent though it is, I find it less characteristic and affecting than his turn in Ford's 'A Single Man.' Like 'The Queen' from four years ago, the British royal family is again the boat on which Britain attempts to take Hollywood. But 'The Queen' was a far more affecting film. Perhaps this is because 'The Queen' was so much more enigmatic, while 'The King's Speech' obvious: the king's doll-like daughters greeting him with "Your Majesty." Need a more obvious way to communicate the king's entrapment? The cruelty of the Duke of York's brother. The footage of "ordinary people" wincing at the king's stuttering. The cheap suspense created by Bertie not listening to his recording of "To be or not to be" until much later. All these are formulaic, and Hollywood formulaic, employed because the the filmmakers seem afraid that we would not be able to empathize with the character's speech impediment problem. But by overdoing it, they achieve the opposite.

This isn't to say that there are quite excellent moments. The fog-drenched streets when Helena Bonham-Carter, as "Mrs. Johnson," seeks out Lionel. The amplification of the stutter in the very first scene. The dinner during which the previous king dies.

The standout for me in this film, however, is Geoffrey Rush. The camera doesn't lavish nearly as much attention on him as it does on Firth, and Rush doesn't get a breakdown scene late in the movie to show off his acting chops, as does Firth. But Rush embodies all the contradiction in the film's supposed theme of an "unlikely friendship" between men of drastically unequal ranks. Whereas Firth ultimately seems energized and, indeed, two-dimensionally happy with his kingship, Rush's last address to his one-time patient is an enigmatic "Your Majesty." Does he admire what he's made, or does he now feel more than ever the disparity in their power? I think also to the expression Rush gives us when his oldest son announces news of WWII - how does Rush think of his "friend" who has the power to send his son to death in war? It is Rush's quiet performance that leaves the maximum dramatic impact, which Helen Mirren had done four years ago by walking down a hallway in Buckingham Palace with a five year old's confusion on her royal face.

A longtime Colin Firth fan, I saw this wonderful film twice at the Toronto Film Festival.

The film opens with Bertie, Duke of York (Firth), the younger son of King George V, making a speech and becoming embarrassingly tongue-tied. Hearing the echo of his words in the outdoor stadium is enough to thwart his efforts. He looks desperately unhappy as the audience watches, some with expressions ranging from sympathy to impatience - clearly this has happened before.

Lionel Logue (Geoffrey Rush), is an Australian speech therapist known for unorthodox methods. The moment we see his home, its eclectic decor tells us he is an unusual character. Logue has a happy and active family. He and his wife (Jennifer Ehle)have 3 sons, ranging in age from early adolescence to late teens. Evidence of the boys' activities is seen around the somewhat messy house - schoolbooks, model planes, etc.

Into this home comes the Duchess of York (Helena Bonham Carter), clearly out of her element. Presenting herself as "Mrs. Johnson," she tells Logue her husband stutters and is called upon to speak in public in his line of work. Logue replies that perhaps he should find a new job! She says that would be impossible, to which Logue inquires if he is an indentured servant. "Yes, sort of," she replies. After she reveals his true identify, Logue only agrees to take him on as a patient if the therapy is conducted in his own office (no house calls, even for royalty) and tells her it is "my castle, my rules."

A reluctant Bertie is coaxed into a first appointment, which ends badly. Logue records him reading the "to be or not to be" soliloquy from Hamlet while wearing headphones blasting Beethoven so that he can't hear himself speaking. Bertie has little patience for these "tricks" and ultimately rips off the headphones and storms out, but not before Logue presents him with the recording as a "souvenir." Some time later, Bertie plays the recording, in which he perfectly enunciates the Shakespearean passage , as Elizabeth, unseen, stands in the doorway listening.

So back to Logue he goes.

Their sessions are filled with pathos and humor. An unlikely friendship begins between two men from vastly different worlds - Logue insists on equality, calling the duke "Bertie." Logue knows that in most cases, stammering results from traumatic childhood experiences, although Bertie scoffs at this assertion. "I was always like this," he insists, Logue replying that no infant begins talking in a stammer. Gradually, his harsh treatment as a child - what we would consider child abuse today - is revealed, sometimes in song at Logue's insistence, when it is too painful to relate in speech. This breakthrough is one of the most powerful scenes in the film, and made me cry both times I saw it. At one point, the two men have a nasty argument and a disruption of their relationship. Bertie makes some cruel comments, mocking Logue's background and questioning his motivation. You can clearly see the hurt on Logue's face as Bertie walks away.

We all know what is going on in the background: the abdication crisis. Edward VI (David) and Wallis Simpson are unsympathetically portrayed. In one scene, David mockingly mimics Bertie's stammer, accusing him of wanting to steal his throne. In truth, Bertie dreads becoming King, breaking down in tears when he realizes his fear is about to become reality. When GeorgeV dies, making David the King, David abdicates when not allowed to marry the twice-divorced Wallis.

Bertie rekindles his relationship with Logue, trying to apologize without saying the words. Logue understands that royalty does not apologize, and begins readying Bertie to speak at the coronation.

The Archbishop of Canterbury does not approve of Logue's influence on the King, and questions his credentials. In a pivotal scene at a Westminster Abbey "rehearsal," the King supports Logue, who admits he is not a doctor and does not have impressive credentials, but never misrepresented himself to clients. After the Archbishop leaves, an amusing "rehearsal" scene takes place at the Abbey.

The film takes a serious turn as Hitler comes into power. Bertie, Elizabeth and their daughters (Margaret and Elizabeth, the current queen) watch a coronation newsreel, followed by footage of Hitler inciting the German people. Bertie's comment? "I don't know what he is saying, but he says it well," envying Hitler's oratory power.

Bertie is an affectionate, hands-on father, in contrast to his own childhood when he and his brother were brought to their parents for a "daily viewing." After he becomes king, the princesses hesitate, then curtsy, upon seeing him. Bertie's face changes as he realizes how completely his life will change, but immediately gathers them into his arms.

As WWII approaches, preparation begins for "The King's Speech" to the nation. The end of the film is brilliant as Bertie speaks live on radio, with Logue there to coach him. We see shots of his subjects - soldiers, people in pubs, his mother, even David and Wallis - listening to the stirring speech. It is a resounding success, but realistically portrayed, as Bertie hesitates several times, following Logue's non-verbal cues to get through it. Afterwards, Logue tells him "you still stammered on the W's" to which Bertie replies, "I had to throw in a few of those so they 'd know it was me." Director Tom Hooper revealed at the Q&A, that that response was taken from the king's own diary.

The film ends with the royal family on the balcony, waving to their subjects as Logue watches, having, for the first time, addressed Bertie as "Your Majesty." It is noted on screen that Bertie and Lionel remained friends for the rest of their lives and that Lionel was awarded a CVO for "personal service to the sovereign." I highly recommend this absorbing drama with masterful characterizations by its two principal actors.

Wow! I just saw this at the Roy Thompson Hall (TIFF) World premiere of The King's Speech with director Tom Hooper (great job), Colin Firth (great), Geoffrey Rush (outstanding), and the writer (excellent job!) present. Front row seating was actually really good.

Let me frame this for you: this is a biopic of shy and stuttering King George VI in the years leading up to WWII. I didn't know he stuttered. And had a speech therapist. Interestingly, the screenplay writer wasn't allowed to put this on until the former Queen passed. "Not in my lifetime," she said. And so he waited 30 years to pass until he could. He was a former stutterer who said to himself, if King George VI could get over his stuttering, then so could I. And hence goes the story of overcoming this major issue (which has emotional and not merely physical roots) while connecting with his speech helper.

The movie zones in on not only the stutter and magnifies the power and lack of power that the spoken word communicates (all subtext), but makes the story very human, and interesting as the film focuses on the King and Lionel Logue, his 'speech defects' therapist, for lack of a better and more accurate term.

The movie flowed well with good story and excellent acting throughout that captured my attention and rewarded it with some funny and very honest moments sprinkled throughout.

Geoffrey Rush was outstanding in playing a common man using his mind and full creative abilities to solve a man's stutter enough to deliver powerful speeches to resist during WWII.

The funniest moment, I shall not reveal, but it has to do with how speech anti-stutter techniques were used. So creative. And honest. AND so funny.

After one key speech, the audience in Roy Thompson Hall spontaneously started clapping. WOW! This was a nice movie. It could have pushed the emotional bar just a bit higher, but nonetheless stuck to its guns and gave an honest and good time. A strong 9/10.

"The King's Speech" strikes by its unusual simplicity. Many films featuring royalty would have insisted so much on the royal aspect, they would have become a predictable exercise in grandeur. But this is not the case of Tom Hooper's brilliant achievement. On the contrary, there's an interesting feeling of intimacy as we're introduced in the little family within the Royal Family, with Albert Duke of York as the father, a man with a stammer and the future King George VI. The brilliance of the script is that the title is quite misleading, since it's less about a King than a normal man haunted by the omnipresence of his "Kingness". The Royal affiliation is the dramatic element that turns the stammer problem into a political issue, transporting us in a closed world where political and symbolic matters transcend the medical problem, and where a man is trapped between his desire of peace and such values as duty and responsibilities. This dilemma between pride and humility will govern Colin Firth's actions, as the tormented Albert, "Bertie", future George of England, a dilemma structuring the narrative of one the greatest screenplays of the last 10 years.

A great screenplay featuring dramatic and comedic situations, where the paradoxes of a man put so much pressure on his shoulders, it becomes comical. The man suffers from a big handicap making his position as a King totally grotesque, especially during the communication era. But he's lucky enough to be the brother of the King, played by Guy Pearce, as the infamous Edward VII who abdicated to marry a two-time divorced American women. All these historical matters are like a streak of bad luck for poor Albert, or "Bertie". This is the originality of the film, we have such a trivialization of a sacred figure and the most crucial events of the last century reduced to a practical problem, we forget about the whole King issue and strangely, the characters become more appealing. They become human, and the stammer problem a common handicap. Actually, the most despicable character is the one who, despite his distance with the Royal family, is still the more "royal" of them, embodying the monarchy in its most decadent aspect. And as far as the story goes, we realize it's s not about a man who cured a stammering to be a respected king, but about a man who started to respect himself to cure his stammering, and appreciate his Kingness. It's about a man becoming himself.

It's not George but Bertie's story. And the heart of the story is the relationship with Lionel Logue, his free-spirited speech therapist, with unorthodox methods, Geoffrey Rush delivering one of the most memorable supporting performances of the last years. I suspected a revelation that Lionel Logue had a stammer as a kid, but this would have been so obvious I was glad they didn't weaken an intelligent script with such an evident twist, a script's intelligence as one that respects ours. The interaction between Bertie and Lionel starts slowly, made of several leavings and come-backs, of moments of complicity and outbursts of anger, breakdowns, and profanities, not without provocations from Logue. Logue's wit and Bertie's temper are like the salt and the pepper that gives its taste to a movie that could have been perceived as too royally British, too serious, a taste of thrills and passion.

The thrills come from those cruel blanks due to a physical inability to overcome this bloody nervousness that block the words. These moments of hesitations, false starts, gulping and teeth shaking noises, are as disturbing and chilling as those where the two bomb experts must choose which wire to cut. But the most touching aspect of the film is the friendship story. The challenge, medical in the beginning becomes personal when Logue realizes the origin of Bertie's problem is a nervousness driven by a low self-esteem. But Bertie instantly becomes George when Logue sits on his throne or insolently teases him, the stammer disappears. This is not about duality, it's about self-confidence, it's about communicating trust, and that's the ultimate proof of friendship. A friend isn't someone you spend a good time with, but one who's not forced to respect protocol or social barriers, therefore any outburst of anger from Bertie is a friendship blocker from the future King, and as long as Logue doens't talk to a King, we know they're friends.

And this is the paradox of Albert, he doesn't want to become the King because of his stammer problem and wants to become the King not be perceived as the ordinary friend of a vulgar Australian. Not only he'll become the King but his very friendship will be the key to his problem. While he'll deliver one of the most engaging and moving climactic speeches in a movie, in the difficult context of the war, the King's speech, which inspired all the British people, he's just an ordinary man watching a friend smiling to him, while listened by his beloved family. And that's why it was a successful speech. Albert had to learn to be a friend to become a King, because being treated as a friend is to let himself go, to trust someone, to learn about trusting to trust his value, to let humility guide you to pride. "The King's Speech" is the extraordinary story of an ordinary hero who overcomes his low self-esteem to meet his destiny, and a beautiful friendship story, too