The King’s Speech – Movie Review
Misery, struggle, failure, frustration, resentment, success, glory and joy – we see it all in a dramatically enriching cinema experience: The King’s Speech. Director, Tom Hooper, along with writer, David Seidler, have masterly development a predictable plot into an absorbing watch. The film is based on a true story of King George VI. His quest to overcome his chronic stammer and give his nation, a leader’s voice!
The film opens with a stammering speech of Prince Albert, Duke of York, at the British Empire exhibition. The pain that is reflected through his eyes on his in-ability to speak confidently and clearly is truly heart breaking. He tries unsuccessfully with several speech therapists and gives it up. The pragmatic Duchess persuades him to see Lionel Logue, an un-conventional Australian speech therapist. Lionel gets informal with the prince and their conversations and sessions become intriguing as the movie moves forward. Their patchy and at times unstable friendship is really touching and is a major driving force in the movie. After the death of King George V and his elder brother’s scandalous abdication the prince becomes King George VI reluctantly. But soon, his stutter raises concerns over his leadership skills. The nation at brink of a war needed a leader’s voice and the King with help of Lionel becomes that voice and delivers a successful war speech.
The whole cast is uniformly excellent. Colin Firth (playing King George VI) and Geoffrey Rush (playing Lionel Logue) deliver tremendous knock out performances. Both wonderful actors have acted brilliantly together and have produced some memorable crowd pleasing sequences with perfect timing. Helena Bonham Carter carries alluring royal looks as the princess. Tom Hooper, director, surely knows his craft and is worthy of all the praises he is getting for this cinematic beauty. Screenplay by David Seidler is gripping and not even for a moment comes a moment of boredom. The film has a prestigious visual appeal (cinematography by Dany Cohen), sets are majestic; the score (Alexandre Desplat) is powerful, it justifies the era, the situations and at times it is emotionally moving. Some historical details have been challenged (mostly relating Winston Churchill) but giving cinematic liberties to its creators it can be considered a minor blemish.
The film has deservedly won various awards including Academy awards for Best Picture, Best director, Best Actor and Best original screenplay. It is an impressive cinematic experience and is surely a must watch for people of all ages.
