Bertie In A Can

Rating: 8/10 (28 November 2015)

It's good to be king. Unless you have a serious speech impediment and need to make worldwide broadcasts in wartime. Then it helps to have a friend who helps you get the words out.
"The King's Speech" presents the true story of Bertie (Colin Firth), second son of King George V who found himself in line to the throne just as Hitler was becoming a global menace and radio omnipresent. To help him through a terrible stammer that grows worse on public occasions, his wife Elizabeth (Helena Bonham Carter) calls upon speech therapist Lionel Logue (Geoffrey Rush) whose unorthodox methods include complete equality between practitioner and patient.
"If we were equals...I wouldn't be here," Bertie says in response to the idea. He'd rather find less conspicuous ways of national service, but fate has other plans in store.
"The King's Speech" is one of those very English movies like "Chariots Of Fire" that seems edifying if stodgy on a first viewing but opens up on repeat views to reveal engaging drama and wit lying just beneath. The star cast, along with director Tom Hooper, invest a fine David Seidler script with understated brio at every turn.
Firth's Oscar and Golden Globe-winning performance is a masterpiece of economy. Yes, he has a stammer, but the drama in his performance is in his rising above it, and, despite his sometimes off-putting manner around the commoner Logue, making you the viewer root for his success.
The film plays with the facts in sometimes garish ways, inventing a bit more tension in the Bertie-Logue relationship than existed in reality. Hooper calls it a "bromance" in the director's commentary, and it feels a bit trite in places. Yet it also makes for a much more forceful drama than reality might have allowed. We are given to understand the stakes involved, both in terms of global politics as well as the psychodrama of Bertie the underloved monarch-to-be climbing his way out of his shell by means of brute force, fits of temper, and even some swearing.
"You don't need to be afraid of the things you were afraid of when you were five," Logue tells Bertie, who wants to believe him but somehow can't.
The likability of the film is established early and maintained throughout, especially by Bonham Carter, at ease in her regal skin yet able to develop empathy in various amusing ways. Her eye flashes alone are worth watching. Rush has a tendency toward bigness in his performances which he deftly evades here, giving Firth center stage always. He's easier to appreciate in a second viewing, when you can see him communicating strength through subtle eye contact while his pupil struggles to find, then maintain, his voice.
The movie culminates in a speech Bertie gave September 3, 1939, one that meant a great deal as it basically kicked off World War II. One of the features in the DVD is a recording of the actual speech; for all the liberties "The King's Speech" takes, it's remarkable how well it recreates that moment, to the point where you find yourself replaying Rush's expressions in your head while the real Bertie works his way through every syllable, a speech with ironically or otherwise concludes with the word "prevail."
As a personal-empowerment story with earth-shaking consequences, "The King's Speech" uplifts as it entertains, providing one with the rare ability to cheer on royalty in the role of underdog and share in Logue's fatherly pride as to how it works out. A real winner.