An inspiring friendship story and one of the greatest screenplays of the last 10 years ...

Rating: 10/10 (17 February 2011)

"The King's Speech" strikes by its unusual simplicity. Many films featuring royalty would have insisted so much on the royal aspect, they would have become a predictable exercise in grandeur. But this is not the case of Tom Hooper's brilliant achievement. On the contrary, there's an interesting feeling of intimacy as we're introduced in the little family within the Royal Family, with Albert Duke of York as the father, a man with a stammer and the future King George VI. The brilliance of the script is that the title is quite misleading, since it's less about a King than a normal man haunted by the omnipresence of his "Kingness". The Royal affiliation is the dramatic element that turns the stammer problem into a political issue, transporting us in a closed world where political and symbolic matters transcend the medical problem, and where a man is trapped between his desire of peace and such values as duty and responsibilities. This dilemma between pride and humility will govern Colin Firth's actions, as the tormented Albert, "Bertie", future George of England, a dilemma structuring the narrative of one the greatest screenplays of the last 10 years.
A great screenplay featuring dramatic and comedic situations, where the paradoxes of a man put so much pressure on his shoulders, it becomes comical. The man suffers from a big handicap making his position as a King totally grotesque, especially during the communication era. But he's lucky enough to be the brother of the King, played by Guy Pearce, as the infamous Edward VII who abdicated to marry a two-time divorced American women. All these historical matters are like a streak of bad luck for poor Albert, or "Bertie". This is the originality of the film, we have such a trivialization of a sacred figure and the most crucial events of the last century reduced to a practical problem, we forget about the whole King issue and strangely, the characters become more appealing. They become human, and the stammer problem a common handicap. Actually, the most despicable character is the one who, despite his distance with the Royal family, is still the more "royal" of them, embodying the monarchy in its most decadent aspect. And as far as the story goes, we realize it's s not about a man who cured a stammering to be a respected king, but about a man who started to respect himself to cure his stammering, and appreciate his Kingness. It's about a man becoming himself.
It's not George but Bertie's story. And the heart of the story is the relationship with Lionel Logue, his free-spirited speech therapist, with unorthodox methods, Geoffrey Rush delivering one of the most memorable supporting performances of the last years. I suspected a revelation that Lionel Logue had a stammer as a kid, but this would have been so obvious I was glad they didn't weaken an intelligent script with such an evident twist, a script's intelligence as one that respects ours. The interaction between Bertie and Lionel starts slowly, made of several leavings and come-backs, of moments of complicity and outbursts of anger, breakdowns, and profanities, not without provocations from Logue. Logue's wit and Bertie's temper are like the salt and the pepper that gives its taste to a movie that could have been perceived as too royally British, too serious, a taste of thrills and passion.
The thrills come from those cruel blanks due to a physical inability to overcome this bloody nervousness that block the words. These moments of hesitations, false starts, gulping and teeth shaking noises, are as disturbing and chilling as those where the two bomb experts must choose which wire to cut. But the most touching aspect of the film is the friendship story. The challenge, medical in the beginning becomes personal when Logue realizes the origin of Bertie's problem is a nervousness driven by a low self-esteem. But Bertie instantly becomes George when Logue sits on his throne or insolently teases him, the stammer disappears. This is not about duality, it's about self-confidence, it's about communicating trust, and that's the ultimate proof of friendship. A friend isn't someone you spend a good time with, but one who's not forced to respect protocol or social barriers, therefore any outburst of anger from Bertie is a friendship blocker from the future King, and as long as Logue doens't talk to a King, we know they're friends.
And this is the paradox of Albert, he doesn't want to become the King because of his stammer problem and wants to become the King not be perceived as the ordinary friend of a vulgar Australian. Not only he'll become the King but his very friendship will be the key to his problem. While he'll deliver one of the most engaging and moving climactic speeches in a movie, in the difficult context of the war, the King's speech, which inspired all the British people, he's just an ordinary man watching a friend smiling to him, while listened by his beloved family. And that's why it was a successful speech. Albert had to learn to be a friend to become a King, because being treated as a friend is to let himself go, to trust someone, to learn about trusting to trust his value, to let humility guide you to pride. "The King's Speech" is the extraordinary story of an ordinary hero who overcomes his low self-esteem to meet his destiny, and a beautiful friendship story, too