A Professional's Assessment

Rating: 10/10 (1 January 2011)

Every once in a rare while, planets do align and writers, actors and directors get it right. And here we are. The confluence of events that create this narrative appear, on the surface, to be rare but they are not; they have just finally been truthfully presented. Here we have a human being (in this case, the Duke of York) in dire need of help - one whom everyone would suspect to have the world's resources at his fingertips, and yet, not a soul in sight who is at once uniquely knowledgeable enough and selfless enough to do so b/c of meanness and self-absorption (King George in disappointment with his son, a self- absorbed brother). This movie underscores the fact that only by forgetting ourselves and engaging with others, can we lift ourselves.
Enter Carter, who forges the confluence by marrying Firth's desperate situation with the forces of a would-be-"speech therapist" (which by the way does not truly exist, but that is the subject of another discussion). Enter the helper, Lionel Logue (I'm confident that the reference to logopedics will not be lost on most). It has been said that wisdom is using knowledge with compassion. Rush's eyes realistically bespeak the professional suspension of personal selves (here, speech/language pathologists), necessary in order to clinically separate the disorder from the person and thus dismantle it, while simultaneously embracing that whole pained human being looking into our eyes. Geoffrey Rush has captured the essence of the wise helper, for whom nothing less than every bit of knowledge ever learned must be employed to lift others out of an abyss, and in so doing, lift ourselves. It is a story about surpassing yourself and forcing others to do so.
Of note is the power issue. Titles create screens to hide behind, and there is no hiding in the true helping relationship.This play on titles is woven throughout the film as Rush refuses to allow Firth to define him as "doctor" and himself as "Duke" or "King." We have here a beautifully rendered twist on Aesop's Lion and the Mouse, the original lesson about the folly of power and the truth of helping.
Realistic writing, superb acting, excellent messages -