The King's Speech (2010) Is Another British Monarchy "Behind The Scenes" Movie

Rating: 6/10 (19 January 2011)

The King's Speech (2010) starring Colin Firth, Geoffrey Rush, and Helena Bonham Carter, directed by Tom Hooper is yet another Hollywood movie about the British monarchy which joins The Queen (2008) and The Madness Of King George III (both of the latter featuring Helen Mirren as the Queen of England, past and present).
The next Royal Wedding is coming up soon as Prince William marries later this year, and the tabloids and other newspapers and watchers of the British Royals are getting ready for the spectacle of it all.
Interest in the British Royals is "in the air," even more than usual, since the soon to be married prince may well become the next King should his father, Prince Charles, give the job of being his mother's replacement and the next King of England a miss.
The King's Speech (2010) movie shows us the insides of many grand Royal places well photographed in wonderful color. It is a sort of travelogue, and that makes the movie's many, many shortcomings worth putting up with.
The acting is good to the extent the actors have material to work with. However, the script is weak and gives actors little range, and repeats dramatic situations good when viewers first see them, but stale when repeated. For the first 20 minutes or so, we enjoy and appreciate the considerable talents and actor expertise of Colin Firth and Geoffrey Rush (who play King George VI and his speech therapist respectively), we are shown the anguish of the King faced with speech problems he has, and the humor and teaching talents of the therapist in duet scenes the movie starts out with.
Unfortunately, the movie fizzles after the first 20 minutes, and we see nothing new for the rest of the show. Just more anguish and more clever teaching done with humor. It gets old. Not the actors fault. They were and are good. But the screenwriter and the producers who hired the screenwriter simply didn't deliver the goods, but rather served up formulaic bromides about the inflexibility of King George V, the father of King George VI, the controversy and criticism which surrounded the future Duke of Windsor and his American girlfriend and future wife (Wallis Simpson, who like Camilla Bowles, Prince Charles' current wife, was divorced), and Hitler and the Nazis in Germany.
Nothing new or original or interesting is part of any of that, and the movie lags and lags as a result.
But the visual part of it all is good, and the lovely settings used and shown are terrific. The gigantic rooms, the expensive furniture, the grovelling servants and deference paid to the Royals by England's trained servile population are all there to see and capture our interest.
It's an OK movie, and not more than that. Hollywood and the movie community worldwide have created great masterpieces over the history of movies as an art form, a history now more than a century old. WWW.Amazon.Com will sell used copies very cheap of the world's greatest movies (see the Library Of Congress National Film Registry List for 475 titles all worth seeing, all cheap in used form from Amazon.Com).
The King's Speech (2011) has many good points and parts, but it is not a great movie. My advice is to see the great ones, and then if you have time left, check out OK but not great movies like The King's Speech (2011).
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Written by Tex Allen, SAG Actor. Visit WWW.IMDb.Com and choose "Tex Allen" "resume" for contact information, movie credits, and biographical information about Tex Allen.
Tex Allen has reviewed more than 35 movies posted on the website WWW.IMDb.Com (the world's largest movie information database, owned by Amazon.Com) as of January 2011.
These include: 1. Alfie (1966) 29 July 2009 2. Alien (1979) 24 July 2009 3. All the President's Men (1976) 16 November 2010 4. American Graffiti (1973) 22 November 2010 5. Animal House (1978) 16 August 2009 6. Bullitt (1968) 23 July 2009 7. Captain Kidd (1945) 28 July 2009 8. Child Bride (1938) 24 September 2009 9. Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954) 22 September 2010 10. Detour (1945) 19 November 2010 11. Die Hard 2 (1990) 23 December 2010 12. The Wonderful, Horrible Life of Leni Riefenstahl (1993) 19 November 2010 13. Jack and the Beanstalk (1952) 26 July 2009 14. King Solomon's Mines (1950) 1 December 2010 15. Knute Rockne All American (1940) 2 November 2010 16. Claire's Knee (1970) 15 August 2009 17. Melody Ranch (1940) 10 November 2010 18. Morning Glory (1933) 19 November 2010 19. New Moon (1940) 3 November 2010 20. Pinocchio (1940) 6 November 2010 21. R2PC: Road to Park City (2000) 19 November 2010 22. Salt (2010) 24 August 2010 23. Sunset Blvd. (1950) 1 December 2010 24. The Great Dictator (1940) 1 November 2010 25. The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner (1962) 9 January 2011 26. The Man in the White Suit (1951) 5 August 2009 27. The Philadelphia Story (1940) 5 November 2010 28. The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1974) 1 August 2009 29. The Thomas Crown Affair (1999) 14 August 2009 30. The Witchmaker (1969) 21 July 2009 31. Thousands Cheer (1943) 3 December 2010 32. Till the Clouds Roll By (1946) 24 November 2010 33. Wake Up and Live (1937) 27 July 2009 34. Witness for the Prosecution (1957) 1 August 2009 A full list of Tex Allen's movie reviews appearing on WWW.IMDb.Com with links to full texts of reviews is accessible via: http://imdb.com/user/ur15279309/comments
Written by Tex Allen, SAG-AFTRA movie actor. Visit WWW.IMDb.Me/TexAllen for more information about Tex Allen.
Tex Allen's email address is TexAllen@Rocketmail.Com.
See Tes Allen Movie Credits, Biography, and 2012 photos at WWW.IMDb.Me/TexAllen. See other Tex Allen written movie reviews....almost 100 titles.... at: "http://imdb.com/user/ur15279309/comments" (paste this address into your URL Browser)