The King's Speech (2010)

Director: Tom Hooper
Story: David Seidler
Cast: Colin Firth, Geoffrey Rush, Helena Bonham Carter
Music: Alexandre Desplat
Time: 118 minutes
Bottom-line: Stunning performances from Rush and Firth

2010 happens to be a year in which many of my favourite films were released: Inception, The Social Network, Shutter Island etc. While my pick for the Oscars was The Social Network (and it remains one of my all time favourites), I was surprised when this film popped out of nowhere to win the Best Picture and Director award. So I sat down to watch Tom Hooper’s historical drama, The King’s Speech, which seemed to impress the critics so much. The film is, in many ways, similar to the 1964 classic, My Fair Lady, and both films are equally enjoyable.

Firth as Prince Albert

Prince Albert (Firth), the second son of King George V, stammers during his speech at the closing of the British Empire Exhibition. This is broadcasted world-wide. Albert gives up on a cure, but his wife, Elizabeth (Carter) persuades him to see an Australian speech therapist, Lionel Logue (Rush). He agrees to take on Albert as a patient. From their first session, Logue keeps occasionally pressing into Albert’s family matters, hoping to get to the psychological cause of his stammer. Though Albert does not like this, he realises that Logue’s methods seem to be working – he is slowly losing his stammer. Whether or not Logue is successful in helping Albert deliver a perfect speech, and how the friendship between the two characters develops forms the rest of the film.

Rush as Lionel Logue 

The first aspect of the film that makes it a success is the cast – Firth, Rush and Carter in the lead, with Guy Pearce and many others in smaller supporting roles. Firth has done an outstanding job – his facial expressions, the way he portrays his struggle to speak are very authentic. It is no surprise that he won the Oscar and BAFTA award for Best Actor for his performance. Then comes Geoffrey Rush, whose character more or less resembles that of Professor Henry Higgins. Though I feel that Rex Harrison did a better job there, I think that Rush gave an almost equally exceptional performance in the film.

Bonham Carter as Elizabeth

The story is slow to begin with, and there is no particular sequence that is interesting. As I said so before, the film resembles the storyline of My Fair Lady, and if you have watched that film, you know what to expect. But there are surprises, and Hooper and Seidler have also merged some history into the main theme as well, to make it more authentic. There are few instances of subtle humour, and few of the dialogues are also memorable. The settings, costumes and Desplat’s score (which I particularly liked) are also top-notch.

The King’s Speech is a film that succeeds because of its powerful, ensemble cast, powered by Colin Firth and Geoffrey Rush. I think critics liked this film because it had a perfect mix of history, drama, class acting etc. But I felt the story to be a bit slow, and it didn’t meet my expectations (which were high, considering the fact that the film won 4 Oscars). Nevertheless: a good film, but not the best of 2010.

My Rating: 3/5
Rotten Tomatoes rating: 95%