A Review: 'The King's Speech'

The Queen and I celebrated our forty-first anniversary in a whoop-dee-do way yesterday afternoon by attending a movie. I was dreading the thought because it starred Colin Firth. He's Lizzie's favorite since she watched him in Pride and the Prejudice: "800 million times"! I think she fashions herself as the one who finally snags Firth aka, Mr. Darcy. He always seemed sort of prissy to me.

Regardless, the movie we saw is "The King's Speech". If you didn't know the story, which I didn't, the title is enough to make you deliriously bored.

Come to find out, the main character of the story, the second son of George V, who rule England in the 1930's, is a stammerer. Are you excited with joy, yet? Read on. His brother is a 'rounder' but when daddy dies 'the rounder; becomes King. Too bad because he's in love with a twice divorced American, Wallis Warfield Simpson. According to British law marrying a divorcee' is forbidden. The King has to give up his throne to 'the stammerer'.
Long story short; the movie tells how the new king overcame his inability to speak to his subjects. Still not excited? I wouldn't be, either, but the screen play is delightful as is the performance of Geoffrey Rush, who plays his speech instructor, Lionel Logue. Logue's a commoner but because of who he is and the success he has working with George VI becomes a lifelong friend and confidant. This is significant since the scenario of the film takes place just prior to World War II. With the advent of radio and sound communication the King's voice gave reassurance to the British people on a daily basis as England approached a world crisis. It wouldn't be beneficial to have your king, your leader, sound like Porky Pig. Especially so since Hitler, a darned good speaker, could incessantly mock him.

The movie lasted two hours and was excellent. The theater was packed and at the conclusion everyone applauded. That's a good sign that this film will receive some big time awards. We enjoyed the movie. Nobody died on screen except for George V and he had the decency to do it lying in bed and going to Never Never Land peacefully. There was no gratuitous sex and there were bits of clever and humerous banter between Rush and Firth. There was some usage of the S and F words but they were placed in the movie with purpose.

See the film. It was outstanding.