The King's Speech

So the Oscars are coming and it's time for me to catch up on the nominated films so that I can make accurate predictions this time around (I had about a 50% fail rate during my Academy Award predictions in January, so hopefully I'll get it right this time around). I've been meaning to get around to watching this film for a while and I am so happy that I did.

The King's Speech was absolutely fantastic. Since I lack any sort of British history skills whatsoever, I was wiki-ing through the whole movie about English monarchs, King George VI's history, and etc...So I'm going to give a little background on the movie, my review and hopefully not include any spoilers in the post. And of course, a little YT video at the end. :)

Trailer:

Characters:
Albert/King George VI -- Colin Firth
Lionel Logue -- Geoffrey Rush
Elizabeth (Queen) -- Helena Bonham Carter
(And also Peter Pettigrew (Timothy Spall) and Dumbledore (Michael Gambon -- as King George V) make an appearance as well ;), obviously I don't know my British actors but I do watch HP )

Plot:
Price Albert stammers while he talks. Obviously this would be a problem for anybody, but as he comes to term with his status and title it becomes increasingly imperative that his speech impediment be fixed. This is where Lionel Logue steps in as his new speech therapist. We learn that Prince Albert has faced adversity from his childhood, his father, and his siblings, all of which did not help with his problem and only decreased his self confidence. And now he's facing new problems as he comes to term with his father's death, his newly appointed kingship because of his older brother's playboy antics and World War II.

Thoughts & review:
So as I said, I'm super confused with royal titles and all of that so I had to look up Albert's name and why he was called George. Same with his brother David aka King Edward VIII. Anyways, so basically, Albert = King George because he changed his name when he became reigning king. Anyways, so to give a little foreground on who exactly is King George to those of you who don't know, he's Queen Elizabeth II's father. :) So I really wonder what she thought of the movie and their portrayal of her father.

Anyways, Colin Firth was amazing. He stammered and stuttered so amazingly that I actually believed it. He portrayed King George VI and his struggles brilliantly and you can tell by just watching him act. The speech impediments, the stiff personality, the temper outbursts, and inner turmoil was effectively delivered and I completely understand why he deserves an Academy Award for this role. When you think Colin Firth, well for me at least, I think of either Bridget Jone's Diary, as that guy with a stick up his ass OR in Love Actually when he falls in love with that lovely Portuguese girl. For him to jump from popular chick flicks to a serious period drama, and with such grace, was wonderful.

Geoffrey Rush, one of the roles we recognize him the most from is the Captain in Pirates of the Caribbean. In this movie he is a wonderfully charming and pushy, if a little bit annoying, speech therapist Lionel Logue. I have never seen any of his movies, besides Pirates, and he's such a great actor in The King's Speech and his character Lionel is absolutely genius. As Lionel, he breaks all of the barriers of any sort of comfort zone that Albert has by calling him by an intimate nickname and teasing him with weird tongue twisters. But all of these antics is really a just a disguise in order to make Albert to face his past in order to conquer the future, oh yeah, and to help with his stammering. He IS what makes the movie so fun to watch. You really never know what he's going to say or do, or make Colin Firth do and the things that they do eventually do are surprisingly funny (see clip below).

All in all this was a serious period piece about a king and his personal issues, with jokes here and there. But usually when you think period piece, you think, this must be boring or dry, but it wasn't. Well at least for me it wasn't. It was moving to see that someone who is regarded as so high and mighty face such surmounting personal problems that literally cripple their ability to do their job AND still persevere through it all. It was a wonderful piece and I really hope that you guys watch it, the acting is wonderful.

A quote I liked:
Lionel Logue: Good speech but you still stammered a bit on the W.
Albert/ King George VI: Well I had to feign a few so that they knew that it was me.

A clip from the movie, a swearing scene so be prepared for a few obscenities:

"Yes! Defecation flows trippingly from the tongue!"


Grade: A-