Reviewed in the United States on May 6, 2011
Colin Firth, Geoffrey Rush and Helena Bonham Carter turn in virtually flawless performances in this virtually flawless film which has a shot at making the Top 100 of All Time.
Firth plays King George VI, nee the Duke of York, familiarly known as "Bertie" to his family, who reigned over the Great British Empire from 1937 to 1951. As the second son of King George V and Queen Mary (she for whom the ocean liner was named), Bertie was "the reluctant King," who came to the throne after his brother David (King Edward VIII, nee the Prince of Wales, subsequently the Duke of Windsor) abdicated the British throne to marry "the woman he loved" the twice-divorced Wallis Simpson with whom he had been carrying on a dalliance for years. Mrs. Simpson continued affairs even while she dated the King, most infamously with Joachim Von Ribbentrop, one of Hitler's intimates, who sent her a fresh bouquet daily for years.
King Edward VIII was a clubman, a gambler, a womanizer and a moral and intellectual lightweight who was remarkable for his vacuous conversation, his patronizing racial and religious attitudes, and his opinion of Hitler as "not such a bad chap." In short, he was the wrong King at the wrong time, that being the prewar 1930s. With the world mired in Depression and being ruled by racialist dictators, it is an open question how he, as moral leader of Britain, would have responded to World War II. History tells us that the imperious and remote George V wanted Bertie to ascend the throne in lieu of David in any case.
Bertie, who was "prone to tears" as a sensitive child, was raised at a distance from his parents (quite common in those generations), was a left-hander forced to be a "rightie," was put into uncomfortable braces for being "knock-kneed," was subjected to ongoing physical and emotional neglect by his Governesses, and was teased by his siblings and peers for his stammer, which worsened as the years progressed. His father, unkind though well-meaning, berated him for his speech impediment and forced him to speak publicly, a humiliating experience.
In 1926 Bertie made the acquaintance of Lionel Logue, an unorthodox speech therapist who helped George VI become a great public speaker. Logue also became a close friend for the rest of the King's life, and aided him in making most of his public addresses.
Most of THE KING'S SPEECH focuses on Bertie's unexpected ascension of the throne and his duty to lead the British Empire in time of war using his words alone. In many ways George VI was unlucky; though media was coming into its own, in his reign particularly every speech was live, with recording and editing techniques that were exceptionally primitive. Given the era, a stuttering King would have been seen by most of his billion subjects as weak. And George VI faced a crisis in World War II that no British monarch has faced before or since. Thus, Logue's task was a herculean one.
Rush plays the Australian Logue brilliantly, eschewing a "Crocodile Dundee" accent for a caustic irreverence. Though this sometimes enrages the King, Logue speaks to him man to man not man to monarch, gaining his trust. He becomes the King's true brother. Their relationship, serious and comic by turns, makes this a "Buddy Film" nonpareil.
Firth is spectacular as the King. He never misses a beat, despite the difficulty of invoking a stutter where one is not present. He also shows us a kind, gentle, occasionally truculent, and altogether human King George VI, a man deeply in love with his wife and daughters (one the present Queen, Elizabeth II), dedicated to his nation, pained by his brother's lack of responsibility, agonizing over assuming a role he never wanted, and terrified of failing his subjects.
Helena Bonham Carter plays Queen Consort Elizabeth (the Queen Mother) as a warm iron hand in a velvet glove. Elizabeth has no pretensions at all; she simply loves her family, and embodies the old adage that "Behind Every Great Man There Stands a Woman," never failing to support and wisely counsel her husband, even when she takes him to task at one point for being unduly rude to Logue. "You apologize," she calmly advises, when he asks her what to do. She dries his tears. She stands by her man in the best way imaginable. Of everyone he knows, only she intimately feels the loneliness he knows in being the King-Emperor.
This is a film well worth seeing, and seeing many times, with the kind of depth that ensures its status as a true classic.
