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Albert “Bertie” Fredrick Arthur George (Colin Firth) has a problem. He needs to be able to speak in public but he has a very bad stammer. You see, he is the Duke of York and his father is the King of England. His wife, Lady Elizabeth (Helena Bonham Carter) tries to help him by engaging a speech therapist by the name of Lionel Logue (Geoffrey Rush), who has a very unorthodox treatment. Hilarity ensues when Bertie’s brother, now King Edward VIII abdicates the throne and Bertie becomes King George VI. The King needs to reassure a nation headed into war and the last thing he needs is a stutter.
Trivia: Guy Pearce plays George VI’s older brother Edward VIII. In actuality, Pearce is 7 years younger than Colin Firth. While preparing the film, the production knew that having some key cast would help the movie get made so the team took the highly unusual step of getting someone who lived near actor Geoffrey Rush to post the script through his letterbox. Although against industry practice, it did have a covering note apologizing for the unsolicited delivery and explained that they were desperate for him to know the script existed. Rush read the script and agreed to do the film. Production had to be scheduled around Helena Bonham Carter’s schedule, as she was also filming Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Parts 1 and 2. The role of King George VI was written with Paul Bettany in mind but Bettany declined to spend more time with his family and later admitted that he regretted his decision. Colin Firth was later cast and was awarded with an Oscar nomination for his performance.
The Characters: King George VI of England assended to the throne when his brother abdicated due to his love of a commoner. He was the king during World War II. Lionel Logue is a speech therapist with a very unusual style and he is adamant that his student follow his rules to the letter no matter who the student is.
The Actors: This movie is completely driven but the actors. Like The Fighter, The King’s Speech received three acting nominations. Helena Bonham Carter (Best Supporting Actress Nominee) plays the supportive British wife, full of elegance and charm, supporting her husband through all. Carter is superb as always. She is one of my favorite actresses. I don’t think she will be able to beat Melissa Leo from the fighter, though. Geoffrey Rush is nominated for Best Supporting Actor and provides the heart of the movie. He is the one who pushes the King and keeps him on track. Rush also should come up short since he is up against the amazing performance of Christian Bale from the Fighter. And then we have the King. Colin Firth is nominated for Best Actor in a Leading Role and here is where The King’s Speech’s best bet at Oscar lies. Firth is tremendous as the reluctant King thrust into something he didn’t want to do but that he felt was his duty to his country. If Firth wasn’t able to give a convincing portrayal of the stuttering leader the movie would have fallen short, but he was just about perfect. You could just feel yourself tensing up willing the man on the screen to be able to speak. Firth is pretty much sitting as the favorite for Oscar. This is his second year in a row to be nominated (A Simple Man) and should be his first win.
The Experience: Besides the Best Acting nominations A King’s Speech is also nominated for Best Picture. This is what you call Oscar bait. A British, dramatic period piece was solid acting will always make Oscar voters salivate. This movie very much deserves the accolades, though. Unlike some of these Oscar Bait movies, this is not pretentious and it moves pretty briskly and doesn’t plod along. It should make a very strong run at the Oscar, but could be beaten by The Social Network. This one is probably going to be a close race and the addition of five movies in the category that started a year ago and harkens back to the first 10 years of the Oscars from the 30’s could change the balance. Votes that could have gone to one of these two will be spread out a little with the extra choices. That is always a problem with having a large pool on nominees. This may very well be Oscar Bait but the performances of these three amazing actors make it well worth watching and a worth candidate for the big prize.
Hilarity Ensues 