Colin Firth's jowls steal the spotlight, but it's a jolly well good movie too

Rating: 8/10 (9 January 2011)

Probably the strongest asset to The King's Speech, which could have been a dry period piece examining the problem of the stutter that King George (aka Prince Albert) had to overcome with his Australian speech therapist, is brought to life with conviction due to good acting and some creative direction from Tom Hooper. There's also some other interest with some of the machinations of the King-hood, how he interacts with the Church of England (being, y'know, the head of the Church) and George's brother who actually steps down as the King after their father dies due to his philandering and wanting to marry a divorced American woman. But you don't go to see The King's Speech for Colin Firth playing the Duke of York with that impediment that he's had since 4 or 5 and Geoggrey Rush as his therapist who is never not helpful and is also helpfully critical with his decisions, even if George doesn't like some of his comments. He's the Duke of York after all; they're not very used to things like criticism. And especially not the stuttering 'Bertie' who used to be called B-b-b-b-Bertie as a kid.
Stuttering is also the kind of impediment that combined with a regal story of power changing hands at the door of WW2 that could probably get Firth the Oscar. Not only that, but Firth is just that damn good here; for the kind of performance that one could dub "Oscar bait" (that is the kind of movie or performance that is giving it over to the Academy on a silver platter), it's much more human and sympathetic than I expected. He often looks like he's about to mope any moment in the movie, but what mope! And George's temper makes it interesting as well: George not only has to overcome the stammer, but his own low self-esteem brought on by years of verbal abuse from his father George V and his snide s*** of a brother. If not for the introduction to Lionel or the support of his wife Elizabeth he might be found compulsively cowering in the corner of Buckingham Palace. Firth makes that fear believable, and the desire, genuinely, from the audience that he should get better, or come closer to it.
One of things that I did like is how by the climax of the film, when George, now the King (this isn't a spoiler, folks, this is bloody history, look it up), has to give the speech to England in 1939 on the cusp of going to war with Germany, he's still not quite confidant. And he only just gets by in the speech, yet he makes it believable as it should be to a Nation, nay a world, to hear him out. The confidence factor is what counts, and I liked that that was what was at stake even more than the stammer. That Firth has such a good co-star with Rush, who can play friendly-pushy and blunt very well is a big plus; that's another thing separating this from another stuffy English Royalty piece, the humor. The lines are witty enough to get someone who can be tired of trying-to-be-witty British humor excited and taking notice of my own laughter. Especially during the swearing scene, which was unfairly what made the film R rated in the US, and with off-handed comments all the way up to and including dramatic confrontations like when George talks to Lionel about his credentials in the royal coronation room.
If nothing else the two actors have such good friendly chemistry I could recommend the movie on that basis alone. But it's also a jolly-good period piece that is inviting for a modern audience.