'The King's Speech'

The King’s Speech starts out with the Duke of York (Colin Firth) “Bertie”, who eventually becomes George IV, having to make a speech at intermission of a horse race, and unfortunately failing to let even three words of the speech leave his lips due to his stuttering. After the embarrassing speech he is recommended a speech therapist (Geoffrey Rush), Lionel Louge, has methods are quite unorthodox as described in the film. In desperation, the Duke agreed to see this man because a job status’ of his requires giving speeches as well as having to be social, which is not easy with an impediment such as this. Lionel is informal with the Duke by calling him “Bertie” which insults the Duke as well as increases his impatience. The Duke quits temporarily at his speech sessions however Lionel’s methods show progress thus Bertie’s wife (Helena Bonham Carter), Queen Elizabeth, forces him to continue weekly sessions with Mr. Louge.

During the sessions the Duke as well is dealing with the death of his father (Michael Gambon), King George V, and his brother (Guy Pearce), King Edward VIII having an affair with a previously divorced woman which would make King Edward VIII unable to rule due to violating the British Constitution. This is not even England’s worse problem, with Nazi Germany conquering Europe and bombing their cities daily. With Edward’s VIII inability to properly lead and ignoring the problems of his country, this puts the Duke of York in a position to gain the throne.

Lionel though enters very dangerous territory in the sense of suggesting that the Duke of York should become king, when the easy response is Lionel has forgotten his place with Bertie. Some scenes were shot excellently using the weather to set the mood. When Bertie becomes King George the VI he soon realizes the need to stop Adolf Hitler because Hitler has great speech prowess and lead to a heartening, touching and inspirational speech.


The King’s Speech, is easily an Oscar nominated movie for best picture best screenplay (David Seilder), best supporting actress (Helena Bonham Carter) as Queen Elizabeth and of course best actor (Colin Firth) for his role as King George VI. What made this movie such a highly regarded movie are the performances, the writing and after hiatus of almost ten years produced by the Weinstein Brothers, Bob and Harvey. Helena Bonham Carter deserves a nomination because as a wife her commitment to helping her husband is very realistic in the sense of her love for him as well. Even for best supporting actor (Geoffrey Rush) may get a nomination for his methods, determination, humor and his friendship with King George VI. The writing in the film is remarkable because the political issues, the friendship of an actual event in history, and the different methods for improving diction, pronunciation, and enunciation. One example is cursing because, swearing increases speed and flow of the tongue. Others include tongue twisters, loosening the jaw, and breathing. The only downside to the film was the casting of Wiston Churchill (Timothy Spall) because the perfromance however brief served as almost a mockery to the historic character, a better option who has played Winston Churchill in a previous role would have been Brendan Gleeson. A-