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"The King's Speech" tells the story of a man compelled to speak to the world with a stammer. It must be painful enough for one who stammers to speak to another person. To face a radio microphone and know the British Empire is listening must be terrifying. At the time of the speech mentioned in this title, a quarter of the Earth's population was in the Empire, and of course much of North America, Europe, Africa and Asia would be listening — and with particular attention, Germany.

The king was George VI. The year was 1939. Britain was entering into war with Germany. His listeners required firmness, clarity and resolve, not stammers punctuated with tortured silences. This was a man who never wanted to be king. After the death of his father, the throne was to pass to his brother Edward. But Edward renounced the throne "in order to marry the woman I love," and the duty fell to Prince Albert, who had struggled with his speech from an early age.

In "The King's Speech," director Tom Hooper opens on Albert ( Colin Firth ), attempting to open the British Empire Exhibition in 1925. Before a crowded arena and a radio audience, he seizes up in agony in efforts to make the words come out right. His father, George V ( Michael Gambon ), has always considered "Bertie" superior to Edward ( Guy Pearce ), but mourns the introduction of radio and newsreels, which require a monarch to be seen and heard on public occasions.

At that 1925 speech, we see Bertie's wife, Elizabeth (Helena Bonham Carter), her face filled with sympathy. As it becomes clear that Edward's obsession with Wallis Simpson (Eve Best) is incurable, she realizes her Bertie may face more public humiliation. He sees various speech therapists, one of whom tries the old marbles-in-the-mouth routine first recommended by Demosthenes. Nothing works, and then she seeks out a failed Australian actor named Lionel Logue ( Geoffrey Rush ), who has set up a speech therapy practice.

Logue doesn't realize at first who is consulting him. And one of the subjects of the film is Logue's attitude toward royalty, which I suspect is not untypical of Australians; he suggests to Albert that they get on a first-name basis. Albert has been raised within the bell jar of the monarchy and objects to such treatment, not because he has an elevated opinion of himself but because, well, it just isn't done. But Logue realizes that if he is to become the king's therapist, he must first become his friend.

If the British monarchy is good for nothing else, it's superb at producing the subjects of films. "The King's Speech," rich in period detail and meticulous class distinctions, largely sidesteps the story that loomed over this whole period, Edward's startling decision to give up the crown to marry a woman who was already divorced three times. Indeed, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor (as they became) would occupy an inexplicable volume of attention for years, considering they had no significance after the Duke's abdication. The unsavory thing is that Wallis Simpson considered herself worthy of such a sacrifice from the man she allegedly loved. This film finds a more interesting story about better people; Americans, who aren't always expert on British royalty, may not necessarily realize that Albert and wife Elizabeth were the parents of Queen Elizabeth II. God knows what Edward might have fathered.

Director Tom Hooper makes an interesting decision with his sets and visuals. The movie is largely shot in interiors, and most of those spaces are long and narrow. That's unusual in historical dramas, which emphasize sweep and majesty and so on. Here we have long corridors, a deep and narrow master control room for the BBC, rooms that seem peculiarly oblong. I suspect he may be evoking the narrow, constricting walls of Albert's throat as he struggles to get words out.

The film largely involves the actors Colin Firth, formal and decent, and Geoffrey Rush, large and expansive, in psychological struggle. Helena Bonham Carter, who can be merciless (as in the "Harry Potter" films), is here filled with mercy, tact and love for her husband; this is the woman who became the much-loved Queen Mother of our lifetimes, dying in 2002 at 101. As the men have a struggle of wills, she tries to smooth things (and raise her girls Elizabeth and Margaret). And in the wider sphere, Hitler takes power, war comes closer, Mrs. Simpson wreaks havoc, and the dreaded day approaches when Bertie, as George VI, will have to speak to the world and declare war.

Hooper's handling of that fraught scene is masterful. Firth internalizes his tension and keeps the required stiff upper lip, but his staff and household are terrified on his behalf as he marches toward a microphone as if it is a guillotine. It is the one scene in the film that must work, and it does, and its emotional impact is surprisingly strong. At the end, what we have here is a superior historical drama and a powerful personal one. And two opposites who remain friends for the rest of their lives.

Note: The R rating refers to Logue's use of vulgarity. It is utterly inexplicable. This is an excellent film for teenagers.

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

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The King's Speech (2010)

Rated R for language

118 minutes

Directed by

David Seidler

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The King's Speech Reviews

A polished, well-rounded drama that subtly and artfully crafts its personal themes.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | May 7, 2024

This is a life-affirming picture about a complex friendship and personal conviction that’s as touching as it is inspiring, and it does all this without feeling cliché or typical.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/4 | Aug 3, 2023

With impeccable period detail accompanied by a few great performances, The King’s Speech is a crowd-friendly, uncomplicated film with a big heart.

Full Review | Jun 27, 2023

Reminds us of a time — not long ago at all — when substance counted for something, and admiration, even among those born to privilege, had to be earned.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5 | Apr 1, 2023

It’s done with good taste, crisp restraint, self-effacing humor and, of course, the modesty we expect from British cinema. Stiff upper lip and all that, with just a touch of sentiment.

Full Review | Feb 4, 2023

Firth strikes a perfect balance between his abrasive traits and the vulnerability that coaxes our empathy.

Full Review | Nov 29, 2022

This spiritual odyssey deserves to be told and in the splendid manner of The King's Speech. [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Jul 14, 2022

"The King's Speech" tells this very personal story of therapy and friendship in such an exquisitely grand and fulfilling way.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5 | Feb 12, 2022

A brilliantly made Royalist drama...

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | May 25, 2021

While there is mild mounting tension, the crux of the film rests on a mere speech recital which is in itself largely anticlimactic.

Full Review | Original Score: 8/10 | Nov 29, 2020

The holiday season's must see film.

Full Review | Original Score: 4.0/4.0 | Sep 13, 2020

A wonderfully-acted, well-crafted motion picture, but one that is also brutally dull.

Full Review | Original Score: C | Jul 12, 2020

This Oscar-bait tour de force should leave you laughing, and perhaps shedding a tear for a very human monarch.

Full Review | Jun 8, 2020

[T]his film is a genuine delight.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5 | Oct 23, 2019

A strong and respectable drama that is anything but revolutionary, but admirably tells its story with dignity and grace.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Jun 7, 2019

Firth's performance in this great film cements his status as one of the best actors working today.

Full Review | Original Score: A | May 8, 2019

Some people never learn. Which is why the great pedagogical movies are for all of us, every last one.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Feb 20, 2019

Travel without prejudice and you will enjoy a moving, impeccably acted and surprisingly funny slice of comfort food. There are worse ways of starting an unpromising looking year.

Full Review | Feb 20, 2019

The King's Speech lingers in the mind and the emotions long after it ends, communicating to us in the spirit of Logue's work.

Full Review | Original Score: A- | Feb 16, 2019

What's so interesting about watching a stammering British royal in the 1930s learning to speak well? As it turns out, plenty.

Full Review | Jan 19, 2019

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Movie Review | 'The King’s Speech'

The King’s English, Albeit With Twisted Tongue

By Manohla Dargis

Nov. 25, 2010

British films that make it to American screens these days often fall into two distinct niches: life is miserable and life is sweet (to borrow a title from the director Mike Leigh, who oscillates between the two). Given its quality headliners and high commercial profile (ding-dong, is that Oscar calling?), it’s no surprise that “The King’s Speech,” a buddy story about aggressively charming opposites — Colin Firth as the stutterer who would be king and Geoffrey Rush as the speech therapist — comes with heaping spoonfuls of sugar.

The story largely unfolds during the Great Depression, building to the compulsory rousing end in 1939 when Britain declared war on Nazi Germany, world calamities that don’t have a patch on the urgent matter of the speech impediment of Albert Frederick Arthur George (Mr. Firth). As a child, Albert, or Bertie as his family called him, the shy, sickly second son of King George V (Michael Gambon, memorably severe and regal), had a stutter debilitating enough that as an adult he felt compelled to conquer it. In this he was aided by his wife, Elizabeth (a fine Helena Bonham Carter), a steely Scottish rose and the mother of their daughters, Elizabeth, the future queen (Freya Wilson), and Margaret (Ramona Marquez).

Albert meets his new speech therapist, Lionel Logue (Mr. Rush), reluctantly and only after an assortment of public and private humiliations. (In one botched effort, a doctor instructs Albert to talk with a mouthful of marbles, a gagging endeavor that might have altered the imminent monarchical succession.) As eccentric and expansive as Albert is reserved, Logue enters the movie with a flourish, insisting that they meet in his shabby-chic office and that he be permitted to call his royal client, then the Duke of York, by the informal Bertie. It’s an ideal odd coupling, or at least that’s what the director Tom Hooper would have us believe as he jumps from one zippy voice lesson to the next, pausing every so often to wring a few tears.

To that generally diverting end, Albert barks and brays and raps out a calculatingly cute string of expletives, including the four-letter kind that presumably earned this cross-demographically friendly film its R. With their volume turned up, the appealing, impeccably professional Mr. Firth and Mr. Rush rise to the Acting occasion by twinkling and growling as their characters warily circle each other before settling into the therapeutic swing of things and unknowingly preparing for the big speech that partly gives the film its title. Before you know it, Elizabeth (Ms. Bonham Carter), the future dumpling known as the Queen Mother, is sitting on Bertie’s chest during an exercise while he lies on Logue’s floor, an image that is as much about the reassuring ordinariness of the royals as it is about Albert’s twisting tongue.

It isn’t exactly “Pygmalion,” not least because Mr. Hooper has no intention of satirizing the caste system that is one of this movie’s biggest draws. Unlike “The Queen,” a barbed look at the royal family after the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, “The King’s Speech” takes a relatively benign view of the monarchy, framing Albert as a somewhat poor little rich boy condemned to live in a fishbowl, an idea that Mr. Hooper unwisely literalizes by overusing a fisheye lens. The royals’ problems are largely personal, embodied by King George playing the stern 19th-century patriarch to Logue’s touchy-feely Freudian father. And while Albert initially bristles at Logue’s presumptions, theirs is finally a democracy of equals, an angle that makes their inequities go down in a most uneventful way.

Each character has his moments, instances when Bertie the closed book tentatively opens and Logue’s arrogance gets away from him, but both are too decent, too banal and the film too ingratiating to resonate deeply. Albert’s impediment certainly pales in comparison with the drama surrounding his older, popular brother, David, later King Edward VIII (a fantastic Guy Pearce), and his married American divorcée, Mrs. Wallis Simpson (Eve Best). After King George V dies, David assumes the crown and continues to carry on with Mrs. Simpson, a liaison that, because of its suggestively perverse power dynamics — at a party, she orders the new king (yoo-hooing “David”) to fetch her booze — hints at a more interesting movie than the one before you.

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Review: The King's Speech

By Scott Foundas in the November-December 2010 Issue

“In the past, all a king had to do was look good in uniform,” observes King George V (Michael Gambon)—the first British monarch to address his subjects via radio—early on in Tom Hooper’s splendid period drama The King’s Speech . “Now we must invade people’s homes and ingratiate ourselves,” he continues. “We’ve become actors!” And this was 1934, three decades before the landmark BBC television documentary Royal Family brought the House of Windsor even closer to the people, and five before Lady Diana Spencer irrevocably blurred the line between commoner and royal, princess and pop icon. George V’s comments are directed at his youngest son, Albert Frederick Arthur George (Colin Firth), who will soon be thrust upon the throne just as England readies to enter World War II. But unlike his sober, stentorian-voiced father, the eventual George VI (father of Queen Elizabeth II) is hopelessly tongue-tied when it comes to public speaking, the victim of an acute stammer that turns ordinary conversation into a humiliating succession of false starts and too-long pauses.

If The King’s Speech risks being too cute by half in its depiction of how this royal without a voice comes to find one in his nation’s hour of need, Hooper and screenwriter David Seidler neatly avoid that trap by training their sights on a much bigger subject—namely, how the wireless waves of radio affected seismic changes to the nature of politics and society at large, turning public figures into performers, and narrowing the distance between classes. Yet amidst all the ballyhoo about Hooper’s film as The Social Network ’s chief rival for Oscar gold, few if any have noted the extent to which the two movies orbit a similar central theme—two portraits of a communications revolution, separated by a century.

We first see the king-to-be (then Duke of York) freezing at the mic during his closing speech of the 1925 Empire Exhibition at Wembley. After being subjected to a succession of useless therapies by a series of royal quacks, the Duke takes a grudging chance on one Lionel Logue (Geoffrey Rush), an Australian-born amateur actor and self-taught speech therapist with no credentials other than his own track record. What follows suggests a role-reversal My Fair Lady , with the lowly Antipodean coaching the aristocrat through measures (rolling around on the ground, shouting streams of obscenities) that have more in common with radical psychotherapy than conventional speech pathology.

Conducting the sessions in a draughty basement room with unfinished walls, Logue adds insult to injury by asking His Royal Highness leading questions about his childhood—an inventory of other forcibly corrected “defects,” including left-handedness and knock knees—and calling him by his family nickname, “Bertie.” (He insists that, in order for the treatment to work, the two men must regard each other as equals.) Their back-and-forth repartee, courtesy of Seidler (a septuagenarian Hollywood vet whose most notable prior credit was on Francis Coppola’s Tucker: The Man and His Dream ), is as sharp as anything this side of Aaron Sorkin. Even sharper, arguably, is the film’s sense of the high value placed on normalcy in a society with little tolerance for disability and aberration.

These are the sort of plum roles that can all too easily turn into smoked ham, but Firth and Rush manage them with an ideal balance of flourish and restraint. Hooper, who has become something of a specialist in exhuming British history from the mothballs of Masterpiece Theatre —his credits include Elizabeth I (05) and the masterful Longford (06), as well as The Damned United (09)—does so again, shooting in long takes and exaggerated wide angles that amplify Bertie’s mounting sense of uncertainty as he finds the weight of the world—and so many words—upon his shoulders.

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The king's speech, common sense media reviewers.

Superb drama about overcoming fears is fine for teens.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

The film has a stirring message: Our biggest limit

The three main characters serve as strong role mod

A character struggles with his temper, which is fu

A king abdicates from the throne because of his in

Strong language includes "bastard," &quo

Some social drinking (sherry, whisky, wine).

Positive Messages

The film has a stirring message: Our biggest limitations are the voices in our head that remind us of all of our imperfections and failures. But they're only voices, and our will and perseverance are stronger than our fears. Communication, integrity, and humility are major themes. The film has some classist overtones, but they’re placed within historical context.

Positive Role Models

The three main characters serve as strong role models: Lionel Logue, though somewhat untraditional in his approach to speech therapy (at least for the movie's time period), believes in himself so much that he's able to help others do so, too. The queen is a lesson in being supportive without condescension, and King George VI is a man not to be denied his life because of his past.

Violence & Scariness

A character struggles with his temper, which is fueled by frustration.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

A king abdicates from the throne because of his involvement with a divorcee. There are references to her "talents" behind closed doors.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Strong language includes "bastard," "bloody," "tits," "damn," "ass," "hell," and "bugger." And in one memorable scene, a man yells out a stream of words like "s--t" and "f--k."

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

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Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that The King's Speech is an engrossing, fact-based drama that's rated R primarily for a few scenes of strong language (including one "f"-word-filled outburst). It has inspiring and empowering messages about triumphing over your fears. An indie about a king who stutters might not seem like typical adolescent fare, but don't judge a movie by the brief synopsis: Teens will enjoy it as much as the grown-ups will if they give it a chance. In addition to the swearing, there's some social drinking, but that all fades in comparison to the movie's surprisingly moving themes of hope and perseverance. Note: An edited version of the movie that removes/lessens some of the strongest language has been rated PG-13 and released separately. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

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Community Reviews

Parents say (65)
Kids say (126)

Based on 65 parent reviews

Great Oscar winning about overcoming fears.

I loved this movie, what's the story.

In THE KING'S SPEECH, King George VI ( Colin Firth ), father to Queen Elizabeth II, inherited the British throne in 1936 after his brother Edward's controversial abdication to marry divorcee Wallis Simpson. Ultimately, he would lead the United Kingdom through World War II. But even before he ascended the throne, he was a man struggling with a persistent and troubling condition: He stammered. This was a source of deep despair for the soon-to-be king, who was known among friends and family members as Bertie. Despite his wife's ( Helena Bonham Carter ) best efforts and deep, abiding love, Bertie was stunted by rage and anxiety. But in this film based on true events, the king finally finds an ally in Lionel Logue ( Geoffrey Rush ), an Australian speech therapist who helps Bertie gain the confidence and will to overcome his fears and let his voice be heard, literally and metaphorically.

Is It Any Good?

It is a singularly gratifying experience to watch this film's three stars -- Firth, Bonham Carter, and Rush -- do what they do best: act. It's like watching a master class. They disappear into their characters and make them both interesting and understandable. That's not always the case with films about royalty. Often, they're a visual (and unremarkable) summary of what we know from books; here, they fascinate with their trials, triumphs, and, most of all, humanity. And for a movie steeped in a feel-good message -- "You don't need to be afraid of the things you were afraid of when you were 5," intones one man -- it's far from clichéd.

Credit, too, goes to director Tom Hooper and screenwriter David Seidler, who himself conquered a stutter and was inspired by the king. They have created characters so rich that they compel viewers to rush to the Web for some post-viewing research. We know a lot about today's royals, but they don't hold a candle to their predecessors -- or at least to the ones portrayed here. The movie makes history and self-help irresistible. Bottom line? The King's Speech is superb.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about the messages in The King's Speech. What are viewers meant to take away from watching?

How does the movie portray stuttering and those who suffer from it? Does it seem realistic and believable? How does Bertie's struggle with stuttering affect him?

How did the queen pave the way for the king's success? Are they positive role models? Do you think the movie portrays them accurately? Why might filmmakers change some details in a fact-based story?

How do the characters in The King's Speech demonstrate communication and perseverance ? What about integrity and humility ? Why are these important character strengths?

Movie Details

In theaters : November 26, 2010
On DVD or streaming : April 19, 2011
Cast : Colin Firth , Geoffrey Rush , Helena Bonham Carter
Director : Tom Hooper
Inclusion Information : Female actors
Studio : Weinstein Co.
Genre : Drama
Character Strengths : Communication , Humility , Integrity , Perseverance
Run time : 111 minutes
MPAA rating : R
MPAA explanation : some language
Award : Academy Award
Last updated : May 29, 2024

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The King’s Speech

A stirring, handsomely mounted tale of unlikely friendship starring Colin Firth and Geoffrey Rush.

By Peter Debruge

Peter Debruge

Chief Film Critic

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Americans love kings, so long as they needn’t answer to them, and no king of England had a more American success story than that admirable underdog George VI, Duke of York, who overcame a dreadful stammer to rally his people against Hitler. A stirring, handsomely mounted tale of unlikely friendship starring Colin Firth and Geoffrey Rush , “The King’s Speech ” explores the bond between the painfully shy thirtysomething prince and the just-this-side-of-common, yet anything-but-ordinary speech therapist who gave the man back his confidence. Weinstein-backed November release should tap into the same audience that made “The Queen” a prestige hit.

Though hardly intended as a public service message, “The King’s Speech” goes a long way to repair decades of vaudeville-style misrepresentation on the subject of stuttering, which traditionally serves either for comic effect (think Porky Pig) or as lazy shorthand for a certain softness of mind, character or spine. Screenwriter David Seidler approaches the condition from another angle entirely, spotlighting a moment in history when the rise of radio and newsreels allowed the public to listen to their leaders, shifting the burden of government from intellect to eloquence.

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Albert’s father, King George V (authoritatively played by Michael Gambon), is no more fond of the wireless, but eventually embraces the device for a series of annual Christmas addresses. Though tough on his tongue-tied son, he views Albert as a more responsible successor than his reckless brother Edward (Guy Pearce), who indeed will famously renounce the throne to marry American socialite Wallis Simpson ( Eve Best ). But George V fears the stammer is unbefitting the throne. “In the past, all a king had to do was wear a uniform and not fall off his horse,” he laments.With responsibility for the crown looming, Albert’s wife Elizabeth (Helena Bonham Carter, in her most effectively restrained performance since “The Wings of the Dove”) seeks out the services of Lionel Logue (Rush), a frustrated Australian actor turned speech therapist. As portrayed by Rush, Logue is what some politely call a “force of nature” — all bluster, no tact, yet incredibly effective in his unconventional approach, rejecting the institutional thinking of the time in favor of vocal exercises and amateur psychotherapy.

While Seidler cleverly uses the prince’s handicap as a point of entry, “The King’s Speech” centers on the rocky connection that forms between Bertie (as the speech therapist calls the prince) and Lionel, whose extraordinary friendship arises directly from the latter’s insistence on a first-name, equal-to-equal dynamic quite unlike anything the Duke of York had previously encountered. Though few would deem it scandalous today, the film rather boldly dares to humanize a figure traditionally held at arm’s length from the public and treated with divine respect, deriving much of its humor from the brusque treatment the stuffy monarch-to-be receives from the irreverent Lionel (including a litany of expletives sure to earn the otherwise all-ages-friendly film an R rating).

While far from easy, both roles provide a delightful opportunity for Firth and Rush to poke a bit of fun at their profession. Firth (who is a decade older than Albert-cum-George was at the time of his coronation, and a good deal more handsome) has used the “stammering Englishman” stereotype frequently enough before, in such films as “Pride and Prejudice” and “A Month in the Country.” Here, the affliction extends well beyond bashful affectation, looking and sounding more like a man drowning in plain air as his face swells and his throat clucks, yet no words come out. Rush’s character, meanwhile, is that most delicious of caricatures, a recklessly bad actor whose shortcomings are embellished by someone who clearly knows better.

On the surface, Rush appears to have the showier of the two parts. But the big scenes are indisputably Firth’s, with two major speeches bookending the film (the latter one being the 1939 radio broadcast with which King George VI addressed a nation entering into war with Germany) and a surprisingly candid confession at roughly the midway point (in which Albert reveals the abusive treatment that likely created his stammer in the first place).

Hooper, who nimbly sidestepped the pitfalls of the generic sports movie in “The Damned United,” proves equally spry in the minefield of blue-blood biopics by using much the same m.o. — focusing on the uncommonly strong bond between two men (the director reunites with Timothy Spall here as a rather comical-looking Winston Churchill). Another repeat collaborator, production designer Eve Stewart, re-creates both royal digs and Logue’s wonderfully disheveled atelier, while Alexandre Desplat’s score gives the film an appropriate gravitas.

Production: A Weinstein Co. (in U.S.) release presented with U.K. Film Council of a See-Saw Films/Bedlam production in association with Momentum Pictures, Aegis Film Fund, Molinare, FilmNation Entertainment. Produced by Iain Canning, Emile Sherman, Gareth Unwin. Executive producers, Geoffrey Rush, Tim Smith, Paul Brett, Mark Foligno, Harvey Weinstein, Bon Weinstein. Co-producers, Peter Heslop, Simon Egan. Co-executive producers, Deepak Sikka, Lisbeth Savill, Phil Hope. Directed by Tom Hooper. Screenplay, David Seidler.
Crew: Camera (color), Danny Cohen; editor, Tariq Anwar; music, Alexandre Desplat; music supervisor, Maggie Rodford; production designer, Eve Stewart; art director, Leon McCarthy; set decorator, Judy Farr; costume designer, Jenny Beavan; sound, John Midgley; re-recording mixer, Paul Hamblin; supervising sound editor, Lee Walpole; special effects supervisor, Mark Holt; visual effects supervisor, Tom Horton; line producer, Peter Heslop; associate producer, Charles Dorfman; assistant director, Martin Harrison; second unit camera, Matt Kenzie; casting, Nina Gold. Reviewed at Aidikoff screening room, Beverly Hills, Sept. 1, 2010. (In Telluride Film Festival; Toronto Film Festival -- Gala Presentations; London Film Festival -- Gala.) Running time: 118 MIN.
With: King George VI - Colin Firth Lionel Logue - Geoffrey Rush Queen Elizabeth - Helena Bonham Carter King Edward VIII - Guy Pearce Winston Churchill - Timothy Spall Archbishop Cosmo Lang - Derek Jacobi Myrtle Logue - Jennifer Ehle Stanley Baldwin - Anthony Andrews Queen Mary - Claire Bloom Wallis Simpson - Eve Best King George V - Michael Gambon

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The King’s Speech Review

07 Jan 2011

118 minutes

King’s Speech , The

Some films turn out to be unexpectedly good. Not that you’ve written them off, only they ply their craft on the hush-hush. Before we even took our seats, Inception had trailed a blaze of its cleverness the size of a Parisian arrondissement. We were ready to be dazzled. If you had even heard of it, Tom Hooper’s The King’s Speech looked no more than well-spoken Merchant Ivoriness optimistically promoted from Sunday teatime: decent cast, nice costumes, posh carpets. That was until the film finished a sneak-peak at a festival in deepest America, and the standing ovations began. Tweeters, bloggers and internet spokespeople of various levels of elocution announced it the Oscar favourite, and this also-ran arrives in our cinemas in a fanfare of trumpets.

But for all its pageantry, it isn’t a film of grandiose pretensions. Much better than that, it is an honest-to-goodness crowdpleaser. Rocky with dysfunctional royalty. Good Will Hunting set amongst the staid pageantry and fussy social mores of the late ’30s. The Odd Couple roaming Buckingham Palace. A film that will play and play. A prequel to The Queen.

Where lies its success? Let’s start with the script, by playwright David Seidler, a model for transforming history into an approachable blend of drama and wit. For a film about being horrendously tongue-tied, Seidler’s words are exquisitely measured, his insight as deep as it is softly spoken. Both an Aussie and a long-suffering stammerer, he first adapted the story as a play, written with the permission of both the late Queen Mother (George’s wife) and Logue’s widow. Stretching into the legroom of film, he loses none of the theatrical richness of allowing decent actors to joust and jostle and feed off each other.

As their two worlds clash, this outspoken “colonial” and this unspoken aristocrat, Seidler mines great humour from the situation. Logue’s outlandish treatments are designed to rock George, whom he insists on calling Bertie (the impertinence!), out of his discomfort zone. He has to lie on the floor, his dainty wife perched upon his chest, strengthening his diaphragm. He has to swing his arms like a chimpanzee, warble like a turkey. And in a sure-to-be classic scene, Logue cracks the dam of his patient’s cornered voice by getting him swearing. “Say the ‘F’ word,” commands Rush, his eyes twinkling at Logue’s front. “Fornication!” howls Firth, like a man bursting. Such naughtiness — escalating to a magnificent chorus of “shits” and “fucks” — landed the film an R rating in America. The silly-billies: the moment couldn’t be more tender or uplifting.

What Hooper sensed of Seidler’s play is that this is not about fixing a voice, but fixing a mind bullied by his father (a waxen-voiced Michael Gambon as George V) and brother since boyhood, a soul imprisoned by the burden of forthcoming kingliness. Between his handsome London backdrops, elevating any potential staginess with sleek forward motion and microscopic historical accuracy (from mist-occluded parks, to the Tardis-sprawl of the BBC’s broadcasting paraphernalia with the death-noose of their microphones), Hooper plays on the idea of childhood. We meet Logue’s scruffy brood and the twee Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret; while in another scene loaded with codified meaning, George begins to open up as he gently completes a model plane. The tragedy is that he never had a childhood. Friendship is a voyage into the unknown for Bertie. Logue is gluing him together.

Hooper, whose own mother recommended the play, knew straightaway here was his cornerstone — the unlikeliest of friendships. To get all zeitgeist on its royal behind, it’s a bromance. One that required two performers to go to opposite places. Colin Firth has found a rich vein of form: A Single Man provided emotional entrapment in repressed grief, but here were greater perils still, treading the perilous high-wire of physical affliction. In terror of mockery or Rainman, he looked to Derek Jacobi’s definitive stammering in I Claudius (Jacobi winkingly cast here as a conniving Archbishop Of Canterbury) and got to grips with an actor’s greatest fear — being unable to find his words. It’s a bristling irony: acting is a craft exemplified in the crystal-clear diction of Shakespeare, but here is a gripping performance where the actor is virtually incapable of speaking at all. Not in a straight line. It is an anti-acting role, yet Firth doesn’t ever stop communicating: pain, sadness, yearning; intelligence and humour demanding escape; and the fierce self-possession of a man born to privilege. When Logue, pushing and pushing, oversteps the mark, Bertie rounds on him, furious, his voice suddenly eloquent in the spate of his fury. The idea of class is never far away; what marks out one’s place in the social network of yesteryear more than how one speaks?

Logue, a psychotherapist before his time (a royal in therapy — the very thought!), finds Rush in equally fine fettle. He locates Logue’s own shortcomings, a failed actor who turns his office into a stage, striding and pontificating, a show-off with a big heart. A modernist trying to break through social prejudice. A colonial nobody desperate to be an English somebody. Stripped walls line Logue’s drafty chambers: the deprivations of pre-War Britain are here, yet warmed by family. The cushioned train of anterooms of Buckingham Palace appear antiseptic in comparison. Life crushed by velvet. Grimacing Whitehall serving as a cold reminder of war to come.

Any behind-the-drapes depictions of British royalty carry the base pleasures of a good snoop. But these were changing times. Helena Bonham Carter makes for a vibrant Queen Elizabeth (the Queen Mum-to-be), both devoted wife and teasing wit whirling around the word “contraverseeal” like a figure skater, another modernist in a dusty enclave who takes the risk of contacting Logue. If anything, older brother Edward VIII was the true trailblazer, breaking through the bars of royal absolutes to marry American divorcee Mrs. Simpson, and unthinkably vacate the throne for his timorous brother. In that decision, precedents were shattered and the modern world spilled into the royal household. Guy Pearce (an Aussie in English robes) has enormous fun as the arrogant older sibling, plumbing his voice to the borders of camp, but a flash harry flinty enough to shed a nation for a wife. As George will angrily point out, what use does a king serve anymore?

If we start small, a lonely prince trying to express himself, we end big. History knocks the door down. Edward abdicates just as that unquenchable ranter Hitler gets warmed up, and Timothy Spall drops by as a slippery Churchill (a jar to the film’s subtleties) to sneer about oncoming “Nazzzeees”. A sense of terrible urgency engulfs the therapy, but what an ending it offers. George VI must use his faltering voice to soothe a frightened nation in a radio broadcast, all but conducted by Logue, transformed into match-winning glory. You’ll be lost for words.

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Review: 'the king's speech' delivers royally.

"The King's Speech" is a crowning achievement powered by a dream cast
Writer David Seidler had first conceived the story as a play
Colin Firth gives a towering performance that deserves a shower of awards

( Rolling Stone ) -- It could have been a bunch of pip-pip, stiff-upper-lip Brit blather about a stuttering king who learns to stop worrying and love the microphone. Instead, "The King's Speech" -- a crowning achievement powered by a dream cast -- digs vibrant human drama out of the dry dust of history.

King George VI ( Colin Firth ) -- father of the present Queen Elizabeth -- found his own Dr. Strangelove in Lionel Logue (Geoffrey Rush), a wildly eccentric Australian speech therapist who made it possible for the stammering monarch to go on radio in 1939 and rally his subjects to support the declaration of war on Hitler's Germany.

Rolling Stone: Peter Travers reviews "The King's Speech" in his weekly video series, "At the Movies With Peter Travers"

"The King's Speech" plays out on the battlefield of words, not action. Writer David Seidler (doing keenly insightful work partly owing to his own bouts with a stammer) had conceived the story first as a play. Before you can think the words "static" and "confining," be advised that director Tom Hooper, garlanded with Emmy dust for "John Adams," "Elizabeth I," "Longford" and "Prime Suspect," breathes fresh, urgent life into every frame of this powerhouse. Hooper, 37, is a prodigious talent. The emotion this film produces is staggering.

Hooper begins in 1925, as the king, then merely Prince Albert, is trying to speak at the British Empire Exhibition. The words stick in his throat, and his silences between syllables fill the stadium. The prince's embarrassment is acute, and deeply felt by his compassionate wife, Elizabeth (a superb Helena Bonham Carter creates miracles with every subtle look and gesture), who goads him to visit Logue.

His Highness goes into heavy snob mode in the presence of this commoner, who demands that they use first names. When Lionel first calls Albert "Bertie," Firth's poleaxed reaction is priceless. Lionel treats speech lessons like therapy sessions, pushing for details about life in the royal family.

What he gets is a portrait of a blowhard father, George V (Michael Gambon), and a taunting brother, Edward VIII (Guy Pearce is absolutely stellar), who reduces the proud, vulnerable Albert to rubble by committing the one unforgivable sin: Edward abdicates the throne to marry American divorcee Wallis Simpson (Eve Best), leaving Bertie to succeed him. Suddenly, the man who would not be king most assuredly is.

Rolling Stone: Peter Travers' holiday movie preview: Ten movies for escapism this season

Firth's nuanced brilliance is a thing of bruised beauty. Oscar-nominated last year for " A Single Man ," he gives a towering performance that deserves a shower of awards. And Rush is his match, fiercely funny in the hilarious and heartfelt interactions between king and commoner. Lionel is a failed actor given to grand gestures, and Rush chows down on this feast of a role, jolting the movie to life.

Firth plays the counterpoint, the blue blood bred to hold it all together. It's uproarious to watch Lionel prod Bertie to lose his cool, forcing him to sing out a symphony of s**t-f***-b***er-me swearing (all stammer-free). Luckily, this release takes place in Lionel's home, where his wife and children are unaware of the royal patient.

The scene in which Lionel's wife, Myrtle (Jennifer Ehle), meets the king has a special poignancy, if you remember Ehle and Firth as lovers in TV's " Pride and Prejudice ."

"The King's Speech" doesn't have the budget to show coronations and pomp, but it misses nothing in resonant intimacy. Hooper, with a Brit father and Aussie mother, throws himself into the scene in which Lionel stands like a conductor in front of the king as he delivers the speech of his life. Two men alone create an epic landscape of feeling in one of the very best movies of the year.

Rolling Stone grade: 3 1/2 stars

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Movie Review: The King’s Speech (2010)

Mariusz Zubrowski
Movie Reviews
2 responses
--> December 27, 2010

One of the requirements to holding any kind of public office is a sharp tongue. That being said, a king with a speech impediment is simply coated with irony; it sounds like a great political satire. However, director Tom Hopper ( The Damned United ), alongside screenwriter David Seidler ( Malice in Wonderland (the 1985 T.V. movie, not the Snoop Dogg album, just to be clear) and Tucker: The Man and His Dream ) have taken a more historical (and thus realistic) route, tapping into the criminally underappreciated story of King George VI. The King’s Speech chronicles the hijinks and hoopla surrounding the king of Britain, Albert Frederick Arthur ‘Bertie’ George (or as he’d refer to himself, Ge-Ge-Ge-orge), a real-life “stutterbug” who inherited the throne from his brother, Edward VIII, when he relinquished the crown in order to marry an American socialite. In the film, Colin Firth plays the famous ruler with Geoffrey Rush rounding out the cast as Lionel Louge, George’s personal speech therapist who becomes the center of a much unexpected friendship. Although The King’s Speech does tackle the controversies surrounding the royal family, as well as the uprising of Hitler’s campaign, it remains more of a personal story — a tale of companionship and acceptance that though rather predictable, is also very well-done.

From the film’s very first scene, the humiliation is present in Firth’s character — made explicitly clear by the actor’s mannerisms. For George, a crowd of supporters and a microphone are far scarier than any political figurehead. Sometimes his condition, a life-changing impediment that almost completely shrouds his intellect, is presented humorously — poking fun at Hitler’s talent in public speaking — whereas in others, it is handled carefully — never bordering on being derogatory. But regardless of what context Seidler sculpts the character in, Firth gives a heavy-handed role that is sure to land him an Oscar nomination at the upcoming Academy Awards (making this year’s ceremony a real clash of the titans, with Firth, Jeff Bridges, and Ryan Gosling expected to garner nods).

However, a majority of the film’s likability is because of Firth’s chemistry with Rush, George’s unorthodox counterpart. Although they do not consider themselves equals in the first few moments of their relationship, the bond between them gradually blossoms. It eventually becomes a beautiful partnership — one that can overcome any obstacle, and it is this that stops George from becoming a one-note, heartless king, allowing him to become shockingly human. Adding to the effect is the versatile Helena Bonham Carter as Queen Elizabeth, whose role in George’s characterization is key — without Elizabeth, who George treats with the utmost of respect, his relationship with Lionel, which begins tumultuously, would have been tainted. Audience members, who watch as George throws tantrums and verbally abuse Louge, would have associated George as nothing more than a dignified brute, but because of Carter’s character, who is employed with immaculate precision, George’s motives are clear — he’s just insecure.

It’s just a shame that Seidler is forced to separate the characters in order to move the plot along. When apart, The King’s Speech is at its weakest — being left wide open to uneeded superfluities which caused me to lose focus and interest (you may think otherwise, if you’re into the entire political scheme of things).

Fortunately, the majority of the film isn’t about politics, instead succeeding because of its very touching human component. And thanks to the chemistry between the film’s leading actors, The King’s Speech goes past being just a good film to being a gr-gr-gr-gr-eat film.

Eventually I'll put something nifty here. Until then, know that I'm watching you. Closely.

Movie Review: Justice League (2017) Movie Review: My Scientology Movie (2015) Movie Review: The Magnificent Seven (2016) Movie Review: Creed (2015) Movie Review: The Green Inferno (2013) Movie Review: Sicario (2015) Movie Review: Terminator Genisys (2015)

'Movie Review: The King’s Speech (2010)' have 2 comments

January 25, 2011 @ 10:34 am Fowler

12 Oscar nominations! It is a good movie, but that good?

January 25, 2011 @ 6:45 pm Mariusz Zubrowski

The Academy loves these buddy-buddy tales of triumphant. But some of the nominations are pushing it.

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The King's Speech – review

S ome films are known as "game-changers". This is not one of those films. It is a don't-change-the-game-er, or yet a jolly-well-change-it-back-er: a traditionally mounted, handsomely furnished British period movie, available at a cinema near you in dead-level 2D. Set in the 1920s and 30s, it is populated by that sort of well-suited patrician Englishman of yesteryear who drinks spirits in the middle of the day, whose middle and index fingers are rarely to be seen without an elegant cigarette interposed, and who pronounces the word "promise" as "plwomise" (try it).

Written by David Seidler and directed by Tom Hooper, The King's Speech is a richly enjoyable, instantly absorbing true-life drama about the morganatic bromance between introverted stammerer King George VI and his exuberant Australian speech therapist Lionel Logue: an affair brokered by George's shrewd wife in her pre-Queen-Mum incarnations as the Duchess of York, and then Queen Elizabeth. These characters are performed with pure theatrical gusto by Colin Firth as the miserably afflicted monarch, Geoffrey Rush as the twinkly eyed speech coach and Helena Bonham Carter as the Queen who has to learn to like Logue by overcoming her own snobbery – which she incidentally never troubles to disguise as shyness.

As well as this, the movie is an intriguing, if slightly loaded new perspective on the abdication crisis of 1936. Above all, it's a smart anti-Pygmalion. Like Shaw's Eliza Doolittle, the poor King as a younger man is forced to speak with his mouth full of marbles, and comes close to Eliza's fate of swallowing one.

But where she had to smarten up and talk proper, George VI (formerly the Duke of York, always known as "Bertie") has to move in the other direction: he has to loosen up, be less formal, less clenched, less clinically depressed. The movie cleverly casts a new light on the dysfunctional tremor at the heart of Britain's royal family, and cheekily suggests there was a time when a British monarch experimented with psychoanalysis, disguised as speech therapy.

Firth's face is a picture of misery in the opening scene, under his top hat, as if attending his own funeral. It is his first public appearance, required to speak through a microphone to vast crowds at the empire exhibition at Wembley stadium, and via live radio to the nation. His stammer means he can hardly get a word out, and the nation cringes with embarrassment. His formidable father, played by Michael Gambon with England's gruffest beard, makes clear to him that this is a new media age. It's not just a matter of looking frightfully regal on a horse, the monarch has to be able to master the radio microphone. Spectacle must not be replaced by dead air.

This is where Lionel Logue comes in – a bullish Australian with bohemian manners and shabby premises on Harley Street. He is a failed actor who is everywhere patronised as a colonial, especially by the toffee-nosed English theatrical types for whom he still hopefully auditions. We see him trying out for an amateur company by doing Richard III's "winter of our discontent" soliloquy. (Might Hooper and Seidler have considered making Logue do the "popinjay" speech by Hotspur from Henry IV Part One – the Shakespeare character traditionally played as a stammerer? Too obvious?) In his script, Seidler creates sharp exchanges as Logue fearlessly barges through the pompous royal formality that's all part of the problem, cheerfully deriding his previous medical advisers: "They're all idiots!" "They've been knighted!" splutters Bertie. "Makes it official then, doesn't it?" Slowly, Bertie opens up to his new friend about his unhappy childhood, and doesn't notice how his speech is improving.

The crisis comes when Logue gets too close to his patient, and Rush shows how "red carpet fever" is getting the better of him: he even affects some anti-colonial hauteur in dismissing the ambitions of Edward's mistress, Mrs Simpson, scoffing at the idea of "Queen Wallis of Baltimore".

Meanwhile, the abdication means poor, stuttering Bertie has to shoulder the ultimate burden while "Herr Hitler" is whipping up the stormclouds of war. The nation needs a king who can rally the forces of good in a clear, inspiring voice. Are Bertie and Lionel up to the job?

As well as the three leads, there are two tremendous supporting turns: Guy Pearce is a terrific Edward, the smooth, obnoxious bully who mocks Bertie's stammer and, marooned in Sandringham, yearns for phone sex with Mrs Simpson – what he ickily calls "making our own drowsies". Gambon has two great scenes as George V: first as the robust patriarch, barking orders at his quailing son, and then – the sudden decline is a modest coup du cinéma – incapable and on the verge of dementia, mumbling and maundering as his privy councillors make him sign away his executive responsibility.

Not everyone's going to like this film: some may find it excessively royalist and may, understandably, feel that it skates rather too tactfully over Bertie and Elizabeth's initial enthusiasm for appeasement and Neville Chamberlain. In this version, Chamberlain hardly features at all – we appear to pass directly from Stanley Baldwin's resignation to the sudden appearance of First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill, jowl-quiveringly, sinew-stiffeningly played by Timothy Spall – always giving advice and apparently permitted to wield a lit cigar in the sovereign's presence. But The King's Speech proves there's fizzing life in old-school British period dramas – it's acted and directed with such sweep, verve, darting lightness. George VI's talking cure is gripping.

Colin Firth
Helena Bonham Carter
Drama films
Period and historical films

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King's Speech, The (United Kingdom, 2010)

The King's Speech delivers solid drama with a rousing climax - a fully satisfying and uplifting period piece that achieves its dramatic potential without sacrificing historical accuracy. Unless you count Hitler, who is seen from afar, the narrative is villain-free, allowing the focus to be on the internal and interpersonal struggles of the characters - a more rewarding approach than when a bad guy is invented to fill the need for a conventional conflict. Even though it is set against the backdrop of mid-20th century British royalty, there are no barriers to mainstream accessibility. The wealth of acting mined by director Tom Hooper may represent the best ensemble not only of this year but of the last several years. Big and small, there are some astounding performances here.

The film opens in 1925. The man who will become King George VI (Colin Firth) is now merely Prince Albert. His official title is the Duke of York and, because he's the second son of King George V (Michael Gambon), he is not expected to ascend to the throne because that role will fall to his older brother, Prince Edward (Guy Pearce). A life away from the relentless attention of Buckingham Palace is suitable for Albert and his wife, Elizabeth (Helena Bonham Carter), who do not desire to be king and queen. And there's another issue: royalty in the age of radio presents a unique challenge for Albert, who is afflicted with a stammer that hampers his ability to speak publically (and, at times, privately). In an attempt to be free of this impediment, he visits Lionel Logue (Geoffrey Rush), a speech therapist known for unorthodox methods. Logue's importance in Albert's life escalates when circumstances conspire to make him the king of England at a time when the storm clouds of World War II are gathering on the horizon.

Although The King's Speech is primarily a drama and can be seen as a buddy movie and an instance of the underdog triumphant, there are plenty of humorous moments. None of the comedy is overdone or out-of-place. One can easily imagine, for example, the amusing awkwardness that would affect a middle-class wife upon discovering the Duchess of York sitting at her modest dining room table. The King's Speech is as positive and life-affirming as any recent movie. Like a sports figure who overcomes incredible odds to score the winning points, King George VI is presented as a man who, through sheer force of will and because of the trust he places in Lionel, is able to surmount the obstacle that blocks his path. Too frequently, we leave movies largely unmoved by the experience; The King's Speech sends viewers home with smiles on their faces and lilts in their hearts.

Rarely have we observed so many fantastic performances in one movie. First and foremost is Colin Firth who may win the Oscar (and, if he doesn't, he should). Perhaps the best way to describe the way Firth inhabits the character is to recall Helen Mirren's astounding turn in The Queen . It's the same sort of thing - a man who sheds his skin and crawls inside that of another so fully that we believe in the character. Geoffrey Rush, with his hangdog face, is the perfect foil for Firth. Rush gives Lionel a false bravado to cover his inner uncertainty about serving such a distinguished client. Beneath the seemingly confident exterior, we see the softer, gentler man. Firth and Rush share strong chemistry, which is critical in any buddy film, irrespective of how offbeat it may be. There's also no shortage of chemistry between Firth and Helena Bonham Carter, whose Elizabeth is a delight. She's sharp-witted and whip-smart but capable of great caring and humanity.

The secondary cast is populated by notable names giving sterling performances. There's Timothy Spall, whose interpretation of Winston Churchill is more than an exercise in mimicry. Derek Jacobi, who played a famous stammerer as the title character in I, Claudius , is the cranky and propriety-conscious Archbishop Lang. The royal family is filled out by Michael Gambon as George V, Claire Bloom as his wife, Queen Mary, and Guy Pearce as Edward, whose infatuation with a twice-divorced American woman creates problems for his reign. Finally, Jennifer Ehle's participation as Lionel's wife allows her an opportunity to be reunited with her Pride and Prejudice co-star, Firth. This is the first time they have shared the screen since that monumental mini-series.

The final scene, which gives the movie its title, represents not only the climax of the story but the moment in which all the elements come together - Firth and Rush's acting; the classical strains of the score; the stark simplicity of the production design (the room in which the speech is given is functional and unadorned). Hooper orchestrates everything with flawless diction in his cinematic language. The microphone looms not merely as an aid to voice amplification and recording, but as an implacable enemy - the faceless foe George VI must defeat by exorcising his own personal demons. It's an amazing moment.

The MPAA, in its infinite wisdom, has chosen to saddle The King's Speech with an R rating, believing there are too many "fucks." Jack Nicholson got away with 2.5 gratuitous "fucks" in How Do You Know, but that inferior picture survived with a PG-13. Admittedly, there are more than 2.5 "fucks" in The King's Speech (as are there in this now R-rated review), but they are anything but gratuitous. They serve a purpose within the context of speech therapy. The MPAA has once again shown its narrow-mindedness. Those "fucks" are the only reason this is R-rated. There's no sex or violence, just one word spoken a few too many times.

The King's Speech is everything a good movie should be. When the two hour running time expires, many will wish there were more minutes to come. With its deceptively complex drama, skillful direction and polished screenplay, and top-notch acting, The King's Speech illustrates by example how disappointingly lacking so many recent would-be dramas have been. This is a deeply human story that touches the heart and inspires the audience not only in relation to the characters and their circumstances but as a reminder that, in the dreary muddle of 2010's mediocrity, a motion picture like this can still make it to theaters.

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DVD & Streaming

The King’s Speech

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In Theaters

November 26, 2010
Colin Firth as Prince Albert/King George VI); Geoffrey Rush as Lionel Logue; Helena Bonham Carter as Queen Elizabeth; Guy Pearce as Prince David/King Edward VIII); Michael Gambon as King George V; Timothy Spall as Winston Churchill; Jennifer Ehle as Myrtle Logue; Derek Jacobi as Archbishop of Canterbury; Anthony Andrews as Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin; Eve Best as Wallis Simpson

Home Release Date

April 19, 2011

Distributor

The Weinstein Company

Movie Review

Living life without being able to speak easily and fluently is more than just a mere trial. Relaying even the simplest thought is grueling—as well as frustrating and sometimes embarrassing. Well-meaning but patronizing family members offer all manner of useless advice regarding elocution. Speech therapists fill your mouth with marbles and then command you to speak clearly. Telling your children a simple bedtime story is a verbal obstacle course. The thought of standing in front of a microphone summons sheer terror.

And if you are a king, called upon to bolster and unite a fearful nation in the face of war, well, then, the stakes are more than just ease of communication. They are life and death.

His Royal Highness King George VI found himself in this exact position. A stammerer since childhood, no one—least of whom himself—had confidence in his ability to lead the British Empire after his elder brother, David (later King Edward VIII) scandalously abdicated the throne in order to marry American divorcée Wallis Simpson.

But before King George VI becomes king, he is “merely” Prince Albert, father of Elizabeth II (the current queen of England) and husband to Elizabeth, the beloved and now deceased queen mother. In 1925, after Albert’s devastatingly awkward public address to the British Empire Exhibition—if stuttering a few syllables can be considered an address—his wife seeks help from an unlikely source: Lionel Logue.

An eccentric, unemployed Australian actor informally trained in elocution, Lionel is unwaveringly confident in his unorthodox treatments for stuttering. He boldly tells Elizabeth that he will treat Albert only on his turf and by his rules. And by demanding total equality with Albert—whom he even calls Bertie, as the prince’s family members do—Lionel introduces the stuffy royal to the common man’s common life.

The two gradually become friends. Their decades-long relationship produces not only a more confident monarch and better speeches for the British Empire, but a deep camaraderie that helps Albert begin to understand himself and the people he’s leading. And Lionel not only helps the repressed future king find his personal voice, he helps him to speak like a monarch who has a right to be heard.

Positive Elements

Lionel and Albert dearly love their respective wives and children, and Elizabeth is steadfast in her commitment to and love for Albert. She is his comforter, champion and friend who never reveals her own subtle doubts that he will overcome his stammer.

Albert is far more politically and morally discerning than David, and takes the royal family’s duties seriously. He scolds David for his poor leadership on more than one occasion. Hardworking Albert is also tireless in performing the speech exercises Lionel suggests. He continually works to better his speech and prepare for possible kingship even when his personal life is in turmoil. And though he may not always understand the people he will govern, he is determined to lead them well.

Lionel encourages Albert to dig deeply into his lonely childhood memories, thus exposing abuses the prince suffered at the hands of indifferent nannies and frosty, Victorian-era parents. Lionel also offers the future king genuine, unaffected friendship—for perhaps the first time in the royal’s life. He compassionately sees Albert as an emotionally broken but valiant man with tremendous potential for greatness. Lionel, in fact, cares for all his “patients” with the same kindness and dedication.

As a result of his harsh childhood and stammering, Albert has lived in fear most of his life. Lionel tells him there’s hope—that he doesn’t have to be afraid of the things that haunted him when he was young—and that he’s a friend who will always listen.

Spiritual Elements

Mostly stock, cultural expressions: Albert’s father, King George V, says “God bless you” during a Christmas speech. Posters are emblazoned with “God save the king.” God is mentioned during a coronation. Albert publicly announces that Great Britain must commit its wartime cause to God.

As head of the Anglican Church, the king of England is not allowed to marry a divorcée—but David does so anyway, raising the eyebrows and ire of many countrymen.

Sexual Content

David and the twice-divorced Wallis scandalize the world with their love affair. (None of their intimacy is shown, and the phrases “expert ministrations” and “certain skills” stand in for frank descriptions of why David is attracted to her.) Albert tells Lionel of a girl whom he and David pursued in their youth, and dialogue subtly implies that both had sex with her on separate occasions.

Wallis wears a dress with a plunging back. Crude language is used for male genitalia and women’s breasts. Couples kiss.

Violent Content

Prone to fits of temper, Albert yells—especially at Lionel—several times. The threat of war (conveyed via newsreels of Hitler’s zeppelins and marching troops) hangs in the air.

Crude or Profane Language

Close to 20 each of f- and s-words. Christ’s name is abused twice, and God’s is misused at least once. The British crudity “bloody” is used more than a dozen times. Another British profanity, “b-gger,” is used about 10. There’s a handful each of the words “d‑‑n,” “b‑‑tard,” “a‑‑” and “h‑‑‑.” Crude slang is used for sexual anatomy (“t-ts,” “pr–k,” “balls” and “willie”).

Drug and Alcohol Content

People smoke cigarettes and cigars. Of note is that while doctors say the smoke is good for vocal cords, Lionel insists it’s toxic. Alcohol is served at a cocktail party as well as at Lionel’s home. Albert asks for liquor, and Lionel offers him a second drink, presumably to loosen up the ultra-formal royal.

Other Negative Elements

Edward VIII (David) and Wallis are sympathetic toward Hitler, whom they admire. And so, deeply concerned British politicians don’t know which way the monarch will lean politically. Their negative perception of him is strengthened by the fact that before and during his brief reign, David is irresponsible in his duties.

Frightened by the prospect of being crowned king and resentful of Lionel’s informality, Albert pulls rank, harshly and arrogantly calling Logue the disappointing “nobody” son of a brewer. Albert’s younger brother Johnny, who died as a youth, was born “different,” and was hidden away from public view as a result. Albert’s nanny is said to have withheld affection and food from him when he was young—and his parents didn’t notice for three years.

How often have we awkwardly looked away from other people’s disabilities, unable to face their agonizing struggle to accomplish what average folks do with ease?

In The King’s Speech , an entire empire looks away from Albert and his excruciating stutter. Yet he speaks to an audience that is just as fearful as he. When the certainty of a dark and vicious war—and its uncertain outcome—overshadows Great Britain, the nation longs for a leader who will competently guide and encourage citizens to victory. And because they’re not certain Albert is up to the task, we feel their agony just as deeply as we feel his when, at times, he labors to utter even a single word.

People are ashamed for him. Embarrassed because of him. And yet they simultaneously have their fingers crossed for him because he is their only hope.

Today we have the comfort of the historical record. We know how the story ends. The actual King George VI did indeed have a stutter (though its severity is debatable), and overcame enough of his oral issues to address his people with only periodic hesitations. But he never fully overcame his impediment, just as the onscreen king doesn’t. Instead, he faced it, tackling his limitations with Lionel’s help and encouragement. Perhaps the fact that Albert is never completely cured is the most inspiring reminder that courage rarely comes in the absence of fear or weakness. Courage is action in the face of these things, and the elder King George says Albert has more bravery than all of his brothers combined. Lionel agrees and helps Albert to see it too. So much so that the once ineffective King George VI becomes a national symbol of pride and wartime resistance during World War II.

This touching, masterfully acted and subtly comedic film could easily have been PG-rated, making its stirring message readily available for teens and families hungry for an inspiring life lesson devoted to clawing one’s way past shortcomings and limitations. Instead, director Tom Hooper opted for a profanity-laden R rating. Several times Albert angrily blurts out long streams of curse words during speech therapy, since the only times he doesn’t stutter are when he sings and when he swears.

Regarding the foul language and its resulting rating, star Colin Firth told The National Post , “This isn’t a non-issue. I get that people don’t want their small children hearing these strong words—I don’t like them. … I don’t want my kids thinking it’s a good way to use language—language is more beautiful than that. It should be more thought about than that. It has more power than that. That’s lazy and ugly—but that’s not the case in this movie. [The foul language usage is] not vicious, it’s not sexual, and it’s not lazy—it’s anything but. These are tools, these forbidden words have become momentary tools to get a guy to break out of extreme repression. Then he immediately gets rather sheepish and apologizes. There couldn’t be a more harmless context. It doesn’t teach your kids to sprinkle your language with these words or direct them against people. I would hate to deny kids in that age bracket, or discourage them from seeing a film which has so much to say to people that age.”

Firth continues, “As far as the rest of public opinion is concerned, certainly in our industry, I’d be kicking in a door. Because everyone seems to be in harmony on the subject.”

While many will see his point, not everyone is in harmony. Context , when it comes to obscenity, is not the end of the discussion for most families. Surely it’s fair to ask why a movie of this caliber must be first edited (by way of an airline, a TV network or a ClearPlay machine) before the very kids Firth wants to see influenced can reasonably encounter it.

A postscript: The Weinstein Company initially sued the MPAA for assigning The King’s Speech an R rating, arguing that, in fact, context was the end of the discussion. “While we respect the MPAA,” said owner Harvey Weinstein, “I think we can all agree that we are living with an outdated ratings system that gives torture porn, horror and ultraviolent films the same rating as films with so-called inappropriate language.”

After the film won Best Picture, among other Oscars, at the 2011 Academy Awards, Weinstein decided to make a few changes to the film’s language, at least enough to secure a PG-13 rating for a a new version. A statement from the studio declared that the new “family-friendly version” was created for “those to whom it speaks most directly—young people who are troubled by stuttering, bullying and similar trials.” The decision was met with instant derision from the film’s star. “I don’t support it,” said Colin Firth, who won a Best Actor award for his role as the king. “I think the film has its integrity as it stands. I’m not someone who’s casual about that kind of language. I take my children to [soccer] games. I hate hearing that kind of language in their ears, but I won’t deny them the experience of a live game. … I still haven’t met the person who’d object to it.”

Be that as it may, the changes, for many moviegoing families, will go unnoticed because the expletives in question haven’t been muted or bleeped, they’ve merely been replaced with other expletives. Specifically, the long series of f-words that the king blurts out is now a long series of s-words. And one full f-word remains intact at the outset of the outburst.

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Movie review: ‘The King’s Speech’

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It takes two, it always takes two.

Though romantic couples get the attention, some of the most memorable movie pairings, from Marlon Brando and Rod Steiger in “On the Waterfront” to Geena Davis and Susan Sarandon as “Thelma & Louise,” feature same gender actors playing off each other to breathtaking effect. So it is with Colin Firth and Geoffrey Rush in “The King’s Speech.”

FOR THE RECORD: “The King’s Speech”: A review of the film “The King’s Speech” in the Nov. 26 Calendar section said that the coronation of Britain’s King George VI occurred in 1936. The coronation was in 1937. —

Simultaneously commoner and king, teacher and pupil, iconoclast and underdog, the meeting of the unstoppable force that is Rush’s speech therapist and the immovable object that is Firth’s future English king is as good as one-on-one acting gets. Both actors completely inhabit their absorbing roles, relishing the opportunity their exchanges provide and adding unlooked-for layers to a complicated human relationship.

Because this British film has the contours of an Oscar-friendly Hollywood story (not for nothing is the Weinstein Co. involved), “The King’s Speech” tends to sound more standard than it plays. In fact, several factors, aside from that acting, keep it involving and well above the norm.

A key aspect is that “The King’s Speech” is based on the true story of the relationship between Lionel Logue, an Australian speech therapist, and Albert, the Duke of York, who was forced to confront his debilitating stammer in the years leading up to his 1936 coronation as King George VI.

Peeks behind the velvet curtain at scenes of royal travail can be involving, witness 1994’s “The Madness of King George,” and this story is exceptionally moving as well. In fact, when screenwriter David Seidler, a boyhood stutterer, approached the Queen Mother, the king’s widow, decades after the fact about a possible film, she wrote back “Please, not during my lifetime. The memory of these events is still too painful.”

Seidler is a veteran screenwriter whose credits include “Tucker: The Man and His Dream” and three Writers Guild nominations for television features. His script is especially good at conveying the push-pull between royal stutterer and plebian therapist, and his words are given extra spirit by fine acting in the other roles.

Playing the matronly but determined Elizabeth, Duchess of York, is Helena Bonham Carter, in tart Merchant-Ivory form and only one of several top British actors that fill out the cast. Especially good are Michael Gambon as Albert’s father, George V, Derek Jacobi as the Archbishop of Canterbury, Jennifer Ehle as Logue’s wife, Myrtle, and in a surprise but very successful bit of casting, Australian Guy Pearce brings surprising life to Albert’s abdicating brother, Edward VIII.

Best known in this country for the multi-Emmy winning “ John Adams” miniseries, director Tom Hooper is a proven storyteller, expert at embracing popular dramatic material without forcing the emotional content. Though little seen over here, features like “The Damned United” and “ Longford” underscore the way Hooper brings intelligence, variety and pace to traditional stories.

Every drama needs a villain, and we catch a glimpse of this film’s antagonist early on: it’s an enormous microphone, looking as sinister as a serial killer. It’s set up at Wembley Stadium at 1925 so Albert, known as Bertie to his friends, can give a speech to be broadcast to the nation and the world.

As played by Firth in top hat and agony, the Duke of York looks like a man headed to his own execution, or at the very least a considerable public humiliation. As the speech heads toward inevitable disaster, Firth beautifully conveys the agony his stutter causes him, as well as his conviction that he is not living up to his royal obligations by not being able to master it.

So as the years roll by the haunted and distraught duke goes off to a series of therapists, a parade of cranks, quacks and well-meaning incompetents who are so disturbing to his personal dignity that he makes his wife swear that she will take him to no more.

The duchess, however, is made of sterner stuff, and she has one more therapist to try. That would be Rush’s Logue, an eccentric, iconoclastic Australian who so insists on having things his own way — “my game, my rules” — that he makes the unbending duke come down to his humble Harley Street office for his appointments.

The keenest pleasure of “The King’s Speech” is watching the developing relationship between two men who initially have a very convincing distaste for each other. When the duke says “you’re peculiar,” Logue says, “I take that as a compliment.” When Logue admits his methods (which involve comically bizarre physical exercise and deft psychological probing) are unorthodox and controversial, the duke allows that those are his least favorite words. When Logue insists on calling him Bertie, the hot-tempered duke wants to call the whole thing off.

What keeps this mismatched couple together is, frankly, the press of world events. When his brother abdicates for “the woman I love,” the duke unexpectedly becomes king, and when World War II begins, his need to effectively address and rally the nation becomes paramount.

The gift of “The King’s Speech” is that it allows us to look on as a pair of masterful actors re-create a monumental test of wills between an imperturbable layman and a king who insists with royal certitude, “I stammer. No one can fix it.” Their dilemma never feels anything less than real, and when they reach the end of their journey together, we share more fully in their emotions and accomplishments than we would have thought possible.

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‘The King’s Speech’

MPAA rating: R, for some language

Running time: 1 hour, 58 minutes

Playing Arclight, Hollywood, Landmark West Los Angeles

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How historically accurate is the movie The King's Speech

In 2010, The King’s Speech won the Oscar for Best Picture and grossed over $414 million worldwide. It was an unlikely box office champion because it was based on a true story about King George VI of Britain (1895-1952) and an Australian speech therapist Lionel Logue (1880-1953). It shows how Logue helped the king overcome a crippling stammer and how this helped him lead his country during World War II. The movie was directed by Tom Hooper and written by David Seidler.

Before the movie began filming, the writer, Seidler, found Logue's journal and incorporated elements from the journal into the movie. However, despite this, the historical accuracy of the movie has been questioned and even widely criticized.

When does the King's Speech take place?

The King's Speech takes place mainly in the 1930s at a critical juncture for Britain and its Empire. The nation and its various dependencies had still not recovered from the ravages of World War or the Great Depression. Internationally, Hitler was in power in Germany, and many feared, correctly, that there would be another World War. [1] The rather bleak mood of the time is captured very well by the director. At this critical point in its history, the British Royal Family faced its crisis.

After George V's death, he was succeeded by his eldest son, who became Edward VII in 1936. Edward VII's reign was both brief and controversial. Edward wanted to marry a divorced American, Wallis Simpson. Marrying a divorced was unacceptable to many in Britain at this time as the King was also head of the Church of England. Divorce was socially unacceptable, and the Anglican Bishops and others denounced the idea of the monarch marrying a divorced woman.

However, there were some inaccuracies in the movie that troubled viewers. One of the scenes that caused the most controversy was when Sir Winston Churchill, the future leader of war-time Britain, supported the accession of George V. This scene misrepresented Churchill's view of Edward's abdication entirely. Churchill supported Edward VII (1894-1972) and believed that he should remain as king despite his marriage to Wallis Simpson. He was friendly with the abdicated king and remained a supporter. [3]

Unlike in the movie, Churchill did have grave doubts about the ability of George VI to carry out his Royal duties. He was not alone in the belief, and many others shared that view in the highest circles of the British government. Over time, he did come to accept the younger brother of Edward VII and came to respect him as an able monarch and leader . [4]

The King and his Stutter

The movie shows that his speech impediment was a result of his insecurity and shyness. [5] This was very much the case, and George VI did have a terrible stutter from childhood. The King’s Speech accurately shows the real problems caused by the future George VI and the entire Royal Family. In one scene at the opening of an exhibition celebrating the British Empire, George struggles with a speech and becomes visibly upset. The movie shows many senior officials and members of the Royal Family becoming gravely concerned about this. In the 1930a, when the movie is set, for the first-time, Royalty members were expected to speak in public and be effective communicators because of the growing importance of the mass media. [6]

When did Lionel Logue begin treating George VI?

Cooper’s movie relates how George had been seeking help all his life for his stammer, and he tried every technique and treatment available for the time, which is true. The 2010 motion picture does really capture the sense of desperation and anxiety that the future George VI had over his speech impediment. He is shown as going in desperation to the Australian Logue, and this is also correct. The therapist is shown as using innovative techniques to help George overcome his stammer, which is right. The Australian was an early pioneer in speech and language therapy, and he was an innovator. [7] The film shows Rush trying to instill more confidence in the Royal. He adopts several strategies, but none are shown to work.

How did Logue treat George VI's speech impediment?

What was the relationship between king george vi and lionel logue.

The movie shows that the two men began to become real friends over time, despite their differences. This was the case, and it appears that both men liked each other and even enjoyed each other’s company. The relationship between the British king and the Australian is very realistically shown, and they remained friends until the early death of George VI. The movie shows that Logue was present when George made important Radio broadcasts to the British Public. This was the case, but Logue continued to coach the king to speak in public for many years.

In the movie, Logue is shown when George VI pronounced that Britain was at war with Germany in September 1939 during a radio address to the nation. This is not correct, but the Australian did provide the king with notes on things where he should pause and breathe, and these were a real help in the most important speech the monarch ever made. Logue continued to coach the king for many years until about 1944.

Was George VI accurately portrayed in the King's Speech?

Colin Firth’s performance was widely praised. The British actor won the Academy Award for Best Actor. While Firth's performance was widely acclaimed, there were some concerns about how accurately he portrayed the monarch. In the main, Firth did manage to capture George VI and his character in the feature film. The British actor did correctly show that the monarch was a timid and insecure man who felt that he was not equal to his Royal duties, and this was something that greatly distressed him. [10]

This was the case, and the monarch became widely respected for his leadership and his calm dignity. However, the script tended to be overly sympathetic to George and avoided his character's rather unpleasant aspects. He was alleged to have both fits of anger and alleged acts of domestic violence. Those allegations have not been confirmed.

Helena Bonham Carter's performance was praised, and she does capture the personality of Queen Elizabeth (1900-2002). She was a very supportive wife and dedicated to her husband. She did not want him to become king because she feared what it would do to him. Her family, as shown in the feature film. [12] Geoffrey Rush played the character of the speech and language therapist Logue, and he presented him as a larger-than-life figure who was charismatic, and this was indeed the case. It is generally agreed that Rush really captured the personality of the acclaimed speech and language therapist.

How realistic is the King's Speech?

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Movie Review: The King’s Speech

I n the wake of the widely-predicted Oscar treble for Tom Hooper’s movie – Best Film, Director for Hooper and Actor for Colin Firth – it’s difficult to know what to say about The King’s Speech . The odd contrarian aside, the film was roundly applauded by the critics and audiences flocked to see the tale of George VI’s struggle with his speech impediment in huge numbers, making it the most successful British independent film ever. Its fairly modest budget of £8m – one lessened by the fact the stars took pay cuts to appear in it – has been made back many times over, and the soon-to-be defunct UK Film Council, who helped fund the movie, will surely view this as a fitting, wonderful swansong.

If you don’t already know what Hooper’s film is about you’ve probably been living under a rock, quite frankly. Colin Firth’s Albert Frederick Arthur George, known by family as Bertie, is second-in-line to the throne in 1930s England. Bertie has already made a mess out of several required public and radio speeches, and having tried every speech therapist in London, his wife Elizabeth (Helena Bonham Carter) sends him to Geoffrey Rush’s unorthodox Australian Lionel Logue. Logue’s methods begin to improve things, but once Bertie becomes King George VI after his brother’s abdication, Logue must help him speak not just to his family, but to a nation on the brink of war.

Of course, even people who haven’t seen The King’s Speech know its plot, such is the magnitude of its success and its instant integration into mainstream consciousness. But we shouldn’t take this as a sign that it’s populist nonsense, rather that the effect of its story and the skill of its execution have turned a low-budget English movie into a worldwide phenomenon.

As the title and brief above synopsis indicate, this is a film whose success rests almost entirely on the shoulders of its leading man. Firth, as Bertie, is in nearly every scene, and must communicate the combination of frustration, anger and utter anguish that a debilitating stutter would have on someone pressured to speak to the masses. It could easily become a farce in lesser hands, but the English actor is delicate, clever and unsentimental; Bertie doesn’t come across as a fretful heir, but a powerful man whose personal and social development has been constantly hampered by his inability to speak clearly. Firth stutters with his whole body, his eyes and arms as crucial to portraying the effort of forcing a word out as his mouth is, and the effect is hugely impressive. Often, Oscar winners don’t live up to the billing, but here Firth is magnetic in a massively challenging role, and the film succeeds largely as a result of his ceaseless travails.

Bonham Carter and Rush, also Oscar-nominated, are also both excellent in their supporting roles. Rush’s warm, comforting Aussie twang playing nicely against Firth’s staccato, and consequently we can see why he is so good at soothing and helping Bertie. Bonham Carter’s skill lies in her ability to make the most of seemingly fleeting moments – as Bertie painfully struggles through the film’s first speech, her despair is tangible, her hugely expressive features convincing us entirely of Elizabeth’s love for her struggling husband.

Hooper’s direction is very accomplished, although perhaps the least obvious Oscar-winning, his camera able to sweep with regal grandeur across a Scottish estate or linger painfully on the microphone Bertie can’t speak into with impressive dexterity and poise. Where films about the monarchy are so often broad and pompous, Hooper’s direction keeps the plot taut and firmly indoors: almost every major scene takes place in a small room but the Damned United director is able to evoke great emotion in small spaces, just as Firth’s Bertie must do when giving his first wartime speech from a tiny backroom in the film’s climactic scene. Hooper helms the film astutely, certainly, but it’s less noticeably affecting than the performances his camera frames; this is not to say he doesn’t deserve an Oscar, just that his victory is a mite more surprising than the other gongs the film earned.

Does The King’s Speech occasionally fall prey to cliché? Certainly; a montage of a cross-section of English people gathering around their radios feels a little hackneyed, and the jokes about 1930s medical beliefs – most notably smoking – feel a little contrived. Yet these are small complaints to have about a film with such a strong core and which has managed to captivate audiences worldwide despite not seemingly being a film tailored toward box-office glory: when was the last time you can remember a film about the act of talking having the kind of success The King’s Speech has had?

The trick with making an Oscar-winning film is to ensure you also make one that will last the test of time. Everyone remembers Citizen Kane even though How Green Was My Valley won the Best Picture award in 1941, and the unending uproar associated with ‘lesser’ winners like Crash and the odious Titanic means that their infamy exceeds their cinematic merit. But with The King’s Speech , Hooper and Firth have managed to create that rarest of beasts: an affecting, universally relatable drama free from sappiness and worthy of the accolades it receives. And for that, if nothing else, The King’s Speech should be remembered.

Verdict: A worthy Best Picture winner, Hooper’s film plays to the heart without playing to the lowest common emotional denominator. It may sacrifice total historical accuracy for the sake of its plot, but the quality of storytelling is undeniable, and Firth’s central performance will live long in the memory of anyone who sees it. A triumph of heart over head? Perhaps, but also a victory for intimacy over ostentation. Excellent.

One response to “Movie Review: The King’s Speech”

Movies truly don’t get any better than this film that we have here. Colin Firth gives a triumphant and towering performance, just when we thought with his performance in last year’s A Single Man couldn’t get better, well he exceeds expectations and gives an amazing performance that will be talked about for years.

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The King’s Speech: A Film Review

“I have a right to because I have a voice!”

Those are the words coming from a man who throughout his life had a stuttering problem, who became King and a voice to a nation who had fallen on hard times and an invasion by the Nazis.

The King’s Speech tells the story of King George VI (Colin Firth) and his wife Queen Elizabeth (Helena Bonham Carter), who helped her husband find a speech therapist to help him not only deal with his speech stuttering, but to also overcome it and not fear it. The stellar British casts’ performance helped enrich and open a lot of eyes and ears to the world of stutters and make them appreciate who they are and accept them in life.

King George VI (Colin Firth) or known to family members as Bertie developed a stuttering speech problem at a very young age and became flustered when he had to speak in public. His nation expected him to be a great orator like his father King George V (Michael Gambdon) who revolutionized a way to speak to his people through the invention of Radio.

Elizabeth sought hard for different speech therapists because Bertie was expected to speak at public functions such as opening new stores, opening ceremonies of games, etc. Every time he spoke, he barely spoke at all due to his nervousness and stuttering. Elizabeth managed to find an interesting therapist, who not only worked well with his patients, but he was quite controversial in his methods of curing or having his patients cope quite well. That therapist was Lionel Logue (Geoffrey Rush) who was a commoner by British standards, but he loved his family and had a passion for theatre. Logue started treating WWI soldiers who were traumatized by the war and he made headway into treating other patients in his office at home. Logue’s treatment was obscure, he had patients swear aloud; roll on the floor, and other methods that seemed odd and controversial.

Logue and Bertie initially developed a strict relationship of “I’m the client, and you are the therapist.” However, their bond grew to where they became best friends despite their therapist/client relationship. Logue managed to dig deep down to figure out why Bertie was the way he was. However tumultuous it seemed their relationship was Logue was able to successfully help King George VI become the orator; his country expected him to be.

The dynamic relationship between Firth, Rush and Carter was stellar as they were able to seamlessly bounce through every scene as if they truly lived during that time period. Firth was able to capture the emotional pain one would suffer by trying to enunciate at least one word without stuttering. His performance was so believable, it is no wonder he was able to win the Best Actor at the Academy Awards. Rush, with his peculiar ways of finding the right role, perfectly found his way into the mind of Logue and emanated his spirit as a down on his luck man with a tenacity to help people. Carter has played a role as British Monarchy before in Lady Jane, but this surpasses this and her other roles. She was able to handle the nuisances of keeping in character as a royal, and also maintain the dignity of a wife, searching for help for her loving husband.

The music composed by Alexandre Desplat, wrote beautiful scores that fit not only the emotional scenes, but also the time period with a country on the brink of war. Every scene was splashed beautifully and meticulously with either an array of colors or just drab scenery to provoke a feeling out of the audience. The musical score was riveting, peaceful at times and sometimes melancholic. It helped enhance the emotions you would feel throughout the film.

The screenplay was inspired by David Seidler, who himself discovered that King George VI was a stutter himself, and overcame his adversity or was able to work with it and not let it hinder him. David discovered that Logue’s diary did exist still with original notes; David was successful in putting some of those notes into the screenplay. In the scene after Bertie makes his speech Logue comments “You still stammered on the ‘W,’ ” and the king says, “Well, I had to throw in a few so they knew it was me.” The screenplay was written with tense, funny and tender moments that will captivate audiences for years to come.

Director Tom Hooper shined by making this film. He was able to create a polarizing film that can make you cry, captivate you in any moment and cause this serene stillness in your soul. The sets, and atmosphere will immediately transplant you to the 1930s when England was on the brink of war with Germany.

This film was delightful and shows that with support, tenacity and an iron will determination, people will want to change and overcome adversity. It just takes some encouragement, love and positive response to give us that extra oomph to go over the hurdle.

In 2011, NPR did a story about stutterers and their reactions to the film along with them for the first time speaking out about their own stuttering. The article also mentioned the Stuttering Foundation that provides excellent resources for both children and adults alike.

Since there was a royal coronation last month, I found it is fitting to reintroduce this blog post from my old blog. Watch this Academy Award winning film and immerse yourself in a time where being king meant not just showing up, but having a voice to lead one’s nation, and maybe you will discover something about yourself you have never known.

Check out The King’s Speech today on Peacock today. If you wish to dive more into this world, purchase the book written by David Seildler from Bookshop.org .

*Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links, whereas I may make a small commission if you purchase a product at no extra cost to you. Please read the full privacy policy *

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The King’s Speech Essay (Movie Review)

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The film, The King’s Speech (Hooper) is a story filled with intricate anti-stereotypic images and paradigm shifts within a larger plot of the British royal family. It is set in the period when Britain went to war with Germany. Albert, the Duke of York, who will later inherit the throne as King George VI, has a speech defect. He stammers and has fruitlessly visited every known professional speech therapist.

To make matters worse, his rise to the throne demands that he makes public speeches which will be broadcast all over the British Empire and its many colonies. Albert’s wife, Elizabeth, visits a quite unorthodox speech therapist in an attempt to help her husband. Lionel Logue is a failed actor who is also an expert in speech therapy using various psychoanalysis methods.

The film revolves around the professional relationship between Logue and his patient, Albert. The professionalism, however, is short-lived as a close friendship develops between the two men. Unlike Albert’s previous doctors and therapists, Logue’s methods are quite unorthodox. He doesn’t regard Albert’s speech impediment as a medical problem that can be solved by legalistic procedures and breath exercises.

Instead, he views the problem as being much deeper than a mechanical speech impediment. In the patient-therapist interactions, Albert is forced to open up about his life, his childhood and his fears. At first, Logue’s methods seem quite irrelevant to the problem at hand. However, in overcoming his internal fears, Albert is slowly able to overcome some of his speech impediments, albeit with a lot of effort.

The movie presents many counter-stereotypical images in this relationship between a failed actor from Australia and the King of England. Albert inherits the throne after his elder brother, Edward, who gives it up so that he can marry the woman he loves. It is ironical how Lionel Logue seems to have all the tricks to help the King overcome his fears and present a flawless speech. On the other hand, Logue’s many failed attempts in acting auditions seem paradoxical to his theatrical approaches in his healing methods.

Logue, a common man who is expected to be fearful, submissive and non-opinionated before his majesty, displays the exact opposite of these attributes. On the other hand, Albert, who is a king and is supposed to exude confidence, charisma and a sense of authority, is the one who comes out as timid, fearful, with low self-esteem and an inability to explore his own individuality.

Such counter-stereotypical images and scene characterize the whole plot of the movie. These features thus make the movie a timeless creation for presenting social issues. Although set in a particular political period, the historical context is not as important as the social values lessons being expressed.

In conclusion, The King’s Speech is an excellent movie that goes against the common trends of most movies. Instead of being the typical game-changing film, it is more of a game-keeping movie. This is because it brings to light issues that people deal and struggle with, but never really get to air. The film is excellently produced and cleverly delivered to drive its various points home.

Works Cited

Hooper, Tom. The King’s Speech . London: The Weinstein Company, 2010. Film

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IvyPanda. (2018, October 19). The King’s Speech. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-kings-speech-movie-review/

"The King’s Speech." IvyPanda , 19 Oct. 2018, ivypanda.com/essays/the-kings-speech-movie-review/.

IvyPanda . (2018) 'The King’s Speech'. 19 October.

IvyPanda . 2018. "The King’s Speech." October 19, 2018. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-kings-speech-movie-review/.

1. IvyPanda . "The King’s Speech." October 19, 2018. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-kings-speech-movie-review/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "The King’s Speech." October 19, 2018. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-kings-speech-movie-review/.

Watch: King Charles Wishes Hello Kitty a Happy Birthday in Live Speech

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Sanrio's popular kitten Hello Kitty , aka London's own Kitty White, has receieved a very special birthday wish from King Charles III in a live speech during the royal's Japanese State Visit earlier this week.

Via Sky News on X (formerly Twitter), King Charles threw attendees -- most notably, Japanese Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako -- for a loop at the State Banquet in the United Kingdom in birthday wishes for a certain person -- or character. "Equally, it has been a pleasure to learn of the British stories behind certain Japanese cultural icons," the king began. "Perhaps you would allow me to note one particular individual who turns 50 this year: raised in a London suburb with her twin sister, a self-made entrepreneur worth billions of dollars, and a UNICEF children's ambassador on top of all that. So, I can only wish a very happy birthday to Hello Kitty!"

Sanrio's Hello Kitty red and white official Crocs

Hello Kitty & Crocs Return With More Adorable Clogs in New Red & White Release

Sanrio's Hello Kitty and Crocs release a new cute pair of kids' clogs, featuring a red/white colorway for Kitty White's 50th-anniversary celebrations.

Both Pokémon & Sanrio's Hello Kitty Get Name-Dropped During Japanese State Visit in the UK

During the Japanese State Visit, King Charles also referenced Pokémon , recounting his history with Emperor Naruhito that stems back decades. They used to go fly-fishing, prompting King Charles to remark, "I am only sorry to report that I haven’t had any better luck with more recent attempts at fishing. The Pokémon phrase 'gotta catch 'em all' may resonate with my grandchildren, but for me, it is, perhaps, aspirational..." (via The Telegraph ).

Isekai Anime Notably Often Features British Culture and Real-Life Royalty

Britan has inspired numerous other Japanese tales. Its influence is clear in the many isekai anime featuring nobility and is explicitly mentioned in fantasy titles like The Ancient Magus Bride and The Seven Deadly Sins . Thriller series like Black Butler and Moriarty the Patriot also highlight the common backdrop of Victorian-era England, with Queen Victoria appearing in both. These titles also feature in CBR's 10 Best Anime Set In The Victorian Era, Ranked , while 10 Best Historical Romance Anime for Newcomers spotlights a further two that have often gone under the radar for anime fans.

Sanrio's Hello Kitty and Lanvin en Bleu jewelry collection featuring earrings

Hello Kitty & Lanvin En Bleu Release Luxury KAWAII DIVA Jewelry Collection

Sanrio's Hello Kitty gets a luxury jewelry release by the France-inspired Lanvin en Bleu, delivering trendy vibes in its new KAWAII DIVA collection.

Hello Kitty being namedropped is hardly a surprise when considering her global appeal. First created in 1974, she's expanded from Japan to every corner of the world, with India the latest to see an increased presence of the character. Her 50th anniversary has attracted numerous fashion and cosmetic collaborations. Meanwhile, the Tokyo National Museum - Hyokeikan in Japan will hold the "Hello Kitty Exhibition – As I Change, Kitty Changes Too," spotlighting the character to attendees from November 2024 to February 2025.

Source: Sky News via X (formerly Twitter)

Hello Kitty

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‘house of the dragon’ season 2, episode 3 recap and review: old feuds and bad blood.

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House of the Dragon

Sunday night’s episode of House of the Dragon opens on an old feud. A group of Brackens and a group of Blackwoods argue over the border of their lands. One side has committed to Rhaenyra’s cause; the other, to Aegon’s. It seems likely that the only reason they’re supporting different sides is out of spite. Hotter heads prevail when it comes to a kingdom on the precipice of war, even if no bloodshed is as appalling to the gods as that of kin slaying kin.

This petty squabble ends with words and shoving. One young man draws his sword. Then the scene cuts to sometime later and the same field littered with the corpses of both Houses as far as the eye can see. The countryside is slick with blood and wreckage. The old windmill has seen better days.

So the first real battle of the Dance of Dragons has finally taken place, albeit offscreen (I think to great effect). It won’t be the last. It seems that much of Season 2, or at least its first half, will be devoted to the early rumblings of war rather than to the war itself, and to the cooler heads’ attempting to call the whole thing off. Daemon (Matt Smith) and Aemond (Ewan Mitchell) want war, clearly, but what about Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy) and Allicent (Olivia Cooke)?

Allicent and Rhaenyra

Rhaenyra discusses the coming bloodshed with her aunt, Rhaenys (Eve Best) and decides she must go to King’s Landing to meet with Allicent face-to-face. She asks Mysaria (Sonoya Mizuno) for help, and the White Worm gives her the one location the Queen Dowager visits without anyone watching: The Great Sept, where she goes to light candles and say her prayers.

Best Nintendo Switch Games: It’s Mario’s World, We’re Just Visiting

Rhaenyra disguises herself as a nun and makes her way to the Sept where she finds Allicent and kneels beside her, much to her once-friend’s shock. She pleads with Allicent to do whatever she can to avoid war, and then the conversation turns to what exactly King Viserys I said in his dying moments. It’s a pretty big revelation to both of them when it turns out he was discussing “the prince that was promised” and the Song of Ice and Fire—not Aegon his son at all. But Allicent, though clearly shaken, says it’s too late. War is coming and there’s nothing she can—or will—do about it.

Allow me a moment to complain, not about this show but about Game Of Thrones. I’m reminded of just how desperately silly the ending was and the many foibles made especially in Season 8. I maintain, though I’m not sure George R.R. Martin will ever finish his books to prove me right, that Jon Snow is the Song of Ice and Fire. He is the prince that was promised—not Daenerys, as the show kept hinting at, stupidly, before making it clear she was anything but.

In fact, the show simply discarded all prophecy as gracelessly and clumsily as possible. Jon didn’t fight and kill the Night King. Arya swooped in at the 11th hour and managed that because the show gave her massive superpowers for no good reason whatsoever, making her far, far less interesting as a character in the process.

Then Jon kills Dany and is exiled, while Bran of all people becomes king! Jon was the heir to the Iron Throne! He was the blood of Stark (ice) and Targaryen (fire)! House of the Dragon makes it clear that this prophecy is a big enough deal to include in a prequel but it just reminds me of how badly Thrones screwed up.

Anyways . . . Rhaenyra’s attempt to avoid war was only a half-baked one at best. She never offered Allicent anything as a bargaining chip. All she did is insist that she was the rightful heir, that her father loved her and that Allicent was mistaken. Did she hope that simply stating her belief about the throne over again would somehow convince the Queen Dowager, and that she would then—empty-handed—be able to avert war? Convince Aegon to what—give up the throne? There was a time for that, when Aegon clearly didn’t want it, but that ship has sailed.

A few other very significant things happened this episode. Rhaenyra sends her youngest boys away with Rhaena (Phoebe Campbell) Daemon’s daughter and younger sister to Beala, to go to the Vale. Rhaena, as you may recall, is the one family member who still doesn’t have her own dragon. This makes her feel very left out of all the fun, especially the “fly a dragon around patrolling for enemies” fun. But along with the children, Rhaenyra sends Rhaena off with a clutch of unhatched dragon eggs. This mollifies her to some degree. (It turns out that these are, indeed, Dany’s eggs in Game Of Thrones, though this is a major departure from Martin’s Fire and Blood ).

Daemon, meanwhile, makes his way to a very wet, very dreary and mostly unoccupied Harrenhal where he meets with the steward, Ser Simon Strong (Simon Russell Beale) and takes up residence, eager to raise armies and rebuild the massive fortress. The Riverlands, it appears, are the key to the entire war and both Team Green and Team Black are making their preparations to bring the lords of the Riverlands to their respective sides. Old Grover Tully is ancient and infirm, however, and his bannermen fractious and unruly as a result.

At this dark castle, Daemon has a strange vision of a young Rhaenyra—Milly Alcock’s first appearance on the show since the first half of Season 1 and quite a surprise!—sewing young prince Jaehaerys’s head back on.

Side-note: I love you, George R.R. Martin, but if you had made these names easier to spell, you might have finished Winds of Winter by now. Sigh.

Daemon in Harrenhal

This is not a normal run-of-the-windmill vision, but one that a witch lends the taciturn prince—er, my pardon, your Grace— and mark my words, this particular witch will have a much larger part to play as this story progresses. “You will die in this castle,” she tells Daemon. Witches are always prophesying the dourest things in Westeros.

I don’t think the show conveys this well, but Daemon effectively just captured Harrenhal for Team Black without shedding a drop of blood. Landing his dragon, Caraxes, on the roof certainly helped. Strong’s dislike of his relative, Larys Strong (Matthew Needham) doesn’t hurt. Larys, meanwhile, becomes Master of Whispers this same episode, thanks to his endless good advice for young Aegon II (Tom Glynn-Carney).

We also meet two other significant new characters. The first is Gwayne Hightower (Freddie Fox of Slow Horses who plays this type of character too well) Alicent’s brother who has apparently spent all this time in Oldtown rather than at court. I’d say he showed up offscreen in the past but since he’s only first introduced to Ser Criston Cole (Fabien Frankel) this episode, I suppose he’s just never been to King’s Landing before. He comes across as arrogant and spoiled, and even the Lord Commander is irritated with him—and I hate agreeing with the Dornishman about anything!

Ser Criston Cole

Speaking of Cole, he’s off with an army to the Riverlands and Harrenhal. He’s tired of all the talk, of all the hand-wringing. He wants action, and so he takes action. Ser Gwayne accompanies him and as they make their way west, Gwayne and his retainers leave the body of the army to find a nearby inn. Cole follows, annoyed at the young knight’s lackadaisical nonsense, and it’s at this point, in an open field, that he spots the dragon high above.

He urges his mount forward and tells the others to ride hard for the trees. Up in the sky, Baela (Bethany Antonia) is on her dragon, Moondancer. She spots the glint of armor and descends as the knights gallop for their lives. Later, we learn that she was close enough to identify Criston Cole, though the Hand and his men do make it into the cover of the forest before any harm can come to them, and Gwayne expresses his gratitude, earning the Lord Commander another loyalist.

The other new character we meet in this episode identifies himself as a Dragonseed—that is, a Targaryen or Valyrian (including House Velaryon) bastard fathered in the Blackwater Bay region. In this series and in Martin’s Fire and Blood, these include (and yes, this is spoilery but I think it will help to understand):

Hugh Hammer (Kieran Bew) the blacksmith we’ve met earlier this season;
Addam (Clinton Liberty) and his younger brother, Alyn of Hull (Abubakar Salim) both Velaryon bastards, though their parentage remains in doubt.
Ulf White (Tom Bennett) the man we meet at the brothel tavern in this latest episode, though we spotted him by the ratcatcher gallows last week. He exposits some on his lineage, which is why I thought it worth expounding upon in this post.

There are others we haven’t met yet who I will leave off the list, but these will all be very important characters as the war unfolds thanks to their unique lineage even as bastards. We also hear, once again, about young Daeron and his dragon Tessarion. Alicent’s youngest has yet to show his cherubic face on House of the Dragon, but he’s on his way.

In that same tavern that very same night, two brothers come to visit. One is loudmouthed and obnoxious; the other is cool as a cucumber. Neither really ought to be there.

We learn earlier that Aegon has replaced the dead Kingsguard with his lackeys, showing all the wisdom and foresight of a lump of coal. None of these slouching ingrates appear to have much training or discipline, another annoyance for Criston Cole, who I’m almost starting to feel empathy toward (yuck). As they dress him for battle—he insists on following after Cole’s army against the wishes of the Small Council—they mention going out to the brothels with a squire who has yet to lose his virginity. “But you swore vows of chastity,” Aegon tells them, sternly. They laugh at first, but are quickly quiet as their king seems to be totally serious. (This is just after Larys convinces the king not to go to battle, after all, through some clever little lies that play right into Aegon’s lack of self-confidence).

Perhaps he was serious about those vows, but hours later we see him stumble into the brothel drunk as a skunk, laughing and shouting, like some scrawny young Robert Baratheon. Perhaps he’s more like Robert than he is Joffrey, but either way he’s hardly acting the part of king, or grieving father. He finds his brother, Aemond, laying on the lap of the older prostitute and mocks him mercilessly. Aemond ends up leaving, a look of grim determination on his face, but not before we see him completely nude. It’s not the only somewhat shocking bit of nudity we get in this scene, as there’s a bit of (dare I say unnecessary) felatio just before. It’s almost as though HBO is trying to balance the scales when it comes to male and female anatomy shown across Game Of Thrones and House Of The Dragon. It’s perhaps mildly ironic that this season of The Boys is showing so much full-frontal male nudity at the same exact time.

In any case, lots and lots of moving pieces and characters both great and small this episode. Nothing quite so violent and shocking as the Blood and Cheese incident, or the battle of the Cargyll twins, Erryk and Arryk, but still a terrific episode that continues to build, however slowly, toward all-out war. It appears next week’s episode is called A Dance Of Dragons which suggests that the war will kick off in earnest soon enough.

A Council of War

Scattered Thoughts:

The exchange between Alicent and poor Helaena (Phia Saban) was very interesting, especially when the daughter tells her mother she forgives her. “What?” Alicent asks, taken aback. “I forgive you,” Helaena says again, clearly of the mind that it needs no explanation.
We see Seasmoke, Laenor’s dragon, and wonder “Who will claim this majestic beast as their own?” Hint: We’ve already met the character, but only just this season.
I already miss Rhys Ifans even if Otto Hightower is a right bastard. Other characters I miss: Graham McTavish’s Ser Harrold and King Viserys I, played so perfectly by Paddy Considine.
Both Aegon’s Small Council and Rhaenyra’s annoy me. I suppose they’re meant to since they annoy both Aegon and Rhaenyra to no end. The gall of Rhaenyra’s lords trying to shuffle her off to “safety” so they can lead the war planning. Then again, I’m not sure Rhaenyra is really up to the task, either.
I’ll add more scattered thoughts as they come to me.

What did you think of this episode and how are you enjoying the season so far?

Let me know your thoughts on Twitter , Instagram or Facebook . Also be sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel and follow me here on this blog . Sign up for my newsletter for more reviews and commentary on entertainment and culture.

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Despicable Me 4

Gru, Lucy, Margo, Edith, and Agnes welcome a new member to the family, Gru Jr., who is intent on tormenting his dad. Gru faces a new nemesis in Maxime Le Mal and his girlfriend Valentina, an... Read all Gru, Lucy, Margo, Edith, and Agnes welcome a new member to the family, Gru Jr., who is intent on tormenting his dad. Gru faces a new nemesis in Maxime Le Mal and his girlfriend Valentina, and the family is forced to go on the run. Gru, Lucy, Margo, Edith, and Agnes welcome a new member to the family, Gru Jr., who is intent on tormenting his dad. Gru faces a new nemesis in Maxime Le Mal and his girlfriend Valentina, and the family is forced to go on the run.

Chris Renaud
Patrick Delage
Steve Carell
Kristen Wiig
18 User reviews
21 Critic reviews
55 Metascore

Poppy Prescott

Maxime Le Mal

Silas Ramsbottom

Sensei O'Sullivan

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Trivia Much like in Despicable Me 3 (2017) , Agnes is recast once again due to age requirements.
Goofs In the 3rd movie, Silas Ramsbottom retired from the AVL, and was replaced by Valerie Da Vinci. But in this movie, he came out of retirement to stop Maxime Le Mal. Because of this, it's unknown what happened to Valerie.
Connections Featured in The Project: Episode dated 17 June 2024 (2024)
Soundtracks Everybody Wants to Rule the World Written by Roland Orzabal, Ian Stanley, and Chris Hughes Performed by Steve Carell, Joey King, Will Ferrell, Kristen Wiig

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Jun 19, 2024
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COMMENTS

The King's Speech movie review (2010)
"The King's Speech" tells the story of a man compelled to speak to the world with a stammer. It must be painful enough for one who stammers to speak to another person. To face a radio microphone and know the British Empire is listening must be terrifying. At the time of the speech mentioned in this title, a quarter of the Earth's population was in the Empire, and of course much of North ...
The King's Speech
Rated: 4/4 Aug 3, 2023 Full Review Mark Johnson Awards Daily With impeccable period detail accompanied by a few great performances, The King's Speech is a crowd-friendly, uncomplicated film with ...
The King's Speech
Full Review | Original Score: 4/4 | Aug 3, 2023. With impeccable period detail accompanied by a few great performances, The King's Speech is a crowd-friendly, uncomplicated film with a big heart ...
'The King's Speech' With Colin Firth
Directed by Tom Hooper. Biography, Drama, History. PG-13. 1h 58m. By Manohla Dargis. Nov. 25, 2010. British films that make it to American screens these days often fall into two distinct niches ...
Review: The King's Speech
Review: The King's Speech. By Scott Foundas in the November-December 2010 Issue. "In the past, all a king had to do was look good in uniform," observes King George V (Michael Gambon)—the first British monarch to address his subjects via radio—early on in Tom Hooper's splendid period drama The King's Speech. "Now we must invade ...
The King's Speech Movie Review
Based on 65 parent reviews. mrsherby Parent of 10-year-old. May 1, 2022. age 12+. Great Oscar winning about overcoming fears. This film is so uplifting. Although🤨. Does contain the f and s word a lot and also a lot of smoking. Aussie's and Brit's forever😀😀😀😀😀😀😀😀😀😀😀.
The King's Speech
The King's Speech U.K Production: A Weinstein Co. (in U.S.) release presented with U.K. Film Council of a See-Saw Films/Bedlam production in association with Momentum Pictures, Aegis Film Fund ...
The King's Speech
The King's Speech — Film Review. Colin Firth, following up on his Oscar-nominated role in "A Single Man," now can claim a place among Britain's finest film actors with his performance as the ...
The King's Speech Review
Original Title: King's Speech , The. Some films turn out to be unexpectedly good. Not that you've written them off, only they ply their craft on the hush-hush. Before we even took our seats ...
The King's Speech (2010)
The King's Speech: Directed by Tom Hooper. With Colin Firth, Helena Bonham Carter, Derek Jacobi, Robert Portal. The story of King George VI, his unexpected ascension to the throne of the British Empire in 1936, and the speech therapist who helped the unsure monarch overcome his stammer.
The King's Speech
The King's Speech is a 2010 historical drama film directed by Tom Hooper and written by David Seidler. Colin Firth plays the future King George VI who, to cope with a stammer, sees Lionel Logue, an Australian speech and language therapist played by Geoffrey Rush.The men become friends as they work together, and after his brother abdicates the throne, the new king relies on Logue to help him ...
Review: 'The King's Speech' delivers royally
Review: 'The King's Speech' delivers royally . By Peter Travers, Rolling Stone. Colin Firth plays King George VI in "The King's Speech," a movie about the King overcoming a stuttering problem.
The King's Speech (2010)
The King's Speech is a warm, wise film - the best period movie of the year and one of the year's best movies. 90. Salon Andrew O'Hehir. Salon Andrew O'Hehir. It's a warm, richly funny and highly enjoyable human story that takes an intriguing sideways glance at a crucial period in 20th-century history. 88.
The King's Speech (2010)
Permalink. 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.
Movie Review: The King's Speech (2010)
Fortunately, the majority of the film isn't about politics, instead succeeding because of its very touching human component. And thanks to the chemistry between the film's leading actors, The King's Speech goes past being just a good film to being a gr-gr-gr-gr-eat film. Critical Movie Critic Rating: 4. Movie Review: Yogi Bear (2010)
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King's Speech, The
A movie review by James Berardinelli. The King's Speech delivers solid drama with a rousing climax - a fully satisfying and uplifting period piece that achieves its dramatic potential without sacrificing historical accuracy. Unless you count Hitler, who is seen from afar, the narrative is villain-free, allowing the focus to be on the internal ...
The King's Speech
Movie Review. Living life without being able to speak easily and fluently is more than just a mere trial. Relaying even the simplest thought is grueling—as well as frustrating and sometimes embarrassing. ... The Weinstein Company initially sued the MPAA for assigning The King's Speech an R rating, arguing that, in fact, context was the end ...
Movie review: 'The King's Speech'
FOR THE RECORD: "The King's Speech": A review of the film "The King's Speech" in the Nov. 26 Calendar section said that the coronation of Britain's King George VI occurred in 1936 ...
How historically accurate is the movie The King's Speech
How historically accurate is the movie The King's Speech. Firth as George VI and Bonham-Carter as his wife Queen Elizabeth. In 2010, The King's Speech won the Oscar for Best Picture and grossed over $414 million worldwide. It was an unlikely box office champion because it was based on a true story about King George VI of Britain (1895-1952 ...
Movie Review: The King's Speech
I n the wake of the widely-predicted Oscar treble for Tom Hooper's movie - Best Film, Director for Hooper and Actor for Colin Firth - it's difficult to know what to say about The King's Speech.The odd contrarian aside, the film was roundly applauded by the critics and audiences flocked to see the tale of George VI's struggle with his speech impediment in huge numbers, making it the ...
The King's Speech: A Film Review
King George VI (Colin Firth) or known to family members as Bertie developed a stuttering speech problem at a very young age and became flustered when he had to speak in public. His nation expected him to be a great orator like his father King George V (Michael Gambdon) who revolutionized a way to speak to his people through the invention of Radio.
The King's Speech Movie Review
Exclusively available on IvyPanda®. The film, The King's Speech (Hooper) is a story filled with intricate anti-stereotypic images and paradigm shifts within a larger plot of the British royal family. It is set in the period when Britain went to war with Germany. Albert, the Duke of York, who will later inherit the throne as King George VI ...
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