The King's Speech Review

Colin Firth and Helena Bonham Carter

The movie begins as Prince Albert, The Duke of York (Colin Firth), delivers a speech to close the 1025 empire exhibition at Wembley Stadium. His terrible stammering so unnerves he, his wife Elizabeth, The Duchess of York (Helena Bonham Carter). and the thousands of listeners to the new radio medium that he seeks out various therapists to help him. They give him such advise as smoking cigarettes because that relaxes the throat and give him exercises like speaking with a mouth full of marbles. He soon becomes so embarrassed and frustrated that he give us any hopes of rehabilitation. Elizabeth secretly finds a speech therapist and convinces her husband to consult the Australian therapist, Lionel Logue (Geoffrey Rush), living in London,

The movie follows the relationship between Logue and Prince Albert as he eventually watches his father, King George V (Michael Gambon) die and his older brother King Edward VIII (Guy Pearce) become king. The relationship grows hot and cold between Albert and Logue as frustrations build between the two. Soon the Duke becomes King and he must give regular speeches while dealing with his affliction.

Colin Firth and Geoffrey Rush

The movie is beautifully made and the performances by Firth, Bonham Carter and Rush are all fantastic and Oscar-worthy. The entire cast was excellent though I was distracted by the casting of Timothy Spall as Winston Churchill. He is an excellent actor but, in addition to not resembling Churchill, I could not help but watch him and not think of him as Peter Pettigrew/Worm Tail in the Harry Potter movies or Mats, the road manager, in Rock Star (2001).

If you enjoy period-piece films or are a history buff this is a must-see movie though it is getting some criticism for being historically inaccurate as it relates to world war II and England's rulers views of Adolph Hitler. I wasn't there for a history lesson and this was more of a friendship/love story (man and wife, friends, country...). I loved this movie. Sugar Momma says 5 stars. MADYM says 4 1/2 - 5 stars and I say 5 stars. That's 14.5 - 15 stars or an average, rounded up to 5 STARS! Tomorrow I will review the theater we watched it in...go see this movie (soon to be Best Picture of the Year as read here last week).