The King's Speech combines well-balanced elements of comedy, tension, romance, history and drama and provides the best movie in 2010

Rating: 10/10 (21 January 2011)

What an extraordinary piece of filmmaking. Tom Hooper took the interesting story of King George VI of Britain (Colin Firth) struggle for regaining trust in his own voice. Knowledgeable of King George's stammer, his wife, Queen Elizabeth (Helena Bonham Carter) appealed to some local and relatively unknown speech therapist by the name of Lionel Logue (Geoffrey Rush). As a short history brief I could add that the Duke of York by the real name of Albert Frederick Arthur George became King of Britain not after the death of his father (King George V) but because of his brother's (King Eduard VIII) discharge or abdication of the duties as king and emperor. The story itself is well proportioned, the narrative linear structure is intelligently mannered and the dialogue is just captivating. I loved the pacing in this movie because it doesn't get slow or dull nor quickly and forgettable. It's a perfect achievement in terms of filmmaking and it's definitely one of the best pictures of 2010 if not the best. As the movie tag is saying, it takes leadership to confront a nation's fear and It takes friendship to conquer your own. King George has to regain not only confidence in his own voice and personality but also has to regain a lost friendship. A friendship he didn't had since his childhood days. He finds that special friend in his speech therapist who is a brilliant psychologist and a great human being. Although the story may sound for some people to be another royal-drama this is obviously not the case. The King's Speech combines well-balanced elements of comedy, tension, romance, history and drama. It succeeds by not focusing too much on just one character but let all of them be more than just screen-puppets. Be relevant pupper-masters that could steal the audience in any scene. Great craft, intensely intelligent and gallantly mannered, King's Speech is one of the finest products of comedic-biopic ever made.
Of course, for a movie to be brilliant you need brilliant acting besides brilliant screenplay and dialogue. And I admit, sometimes the screenplay, the story, could build a character more than his acting but this movie is one of the exceptions. Colin Firth does an outstanding job portraying the hardly King George VI. He looses himself completely into the king's personality. He somehow manages to both interact and disagree with his own character. His mannerism, his tonality, his impeccable eloquence and elegance is by far the outstanding piece of acting this year and Colin Firth deserves his Academy Award after his first nomination last year for "A Single Man". The secondary roles however are not to be forgotten. Helena Bonham Carter as Queen Elizabeth and Geoffrey Rush as Lionel Logue are both dueling with his majesty in terms of acting and they greatly succeed. A great complementary casting in these two wonderful and talented actors. Geoffrey Rush is more of a comedian than a serious therapist and manages to make the audience enjoy his character while Helena Bonham Carter represents the aristocratic fanciness in that period of time.
The entire staff should get recognition for the beautiful and imposing cinematography. It's a perfect combination between two contradicting feelings within King's personality: claustrophobia and liberation. The anti-thesis in this movie is perfectly shown thanks to the beautiful shots and even the chosen contrasts. The decors are also part of this sublime description of our main character by combining complexity with simplicity. Elegance with rustiness. Although all these technical details are pretty good and help to create a worm and comfortable atmosphere, the most incredible thing to me is the music I'm hearing while watching the film. Alexandre Desplay is guilty for providing the best original score this year. I'm sorry for The Social Network or Inception but this is pure music. This piece of astonishing and captivating music is on another level for me as a solid cinefile that I like to believe I am. I had goose bumps just listening the melody in the first 2-3 minutes for the movie and I was already amazed and dazzled.
What more can I possibly say?... The King's Speech is, if not the best, then definitely one of the best movie released in 2010 and one of the best comedic-biopics ever. I still judge this movie as being more a drama/comedy type of movie than being strict and choose just one genre which would be drama.