King George VI Stutters with Laughs, Giggles and Touching Moments at the Toronto International Film Festival

Rating: 9/10 (10 September 2010)

Wow! I just saw this at the Roy Thompson Hall (TIFF) World premiere of The King's Speech with director Tom Hooper (great job), Colin Firth (great), Geoffrey Rush (outstanding), and the writer (excellent job!) present. Front row seating was actually really good.
Let me frame this for you: this is a biopic of shy and stuttering King George VI in the years leading up to WWII. I didn't know he stuttered. And had a speech therapist. Interestingly, the screenplay writer wasn't allowed to put this on until the former Queen passed. "Not in my lifetime," she said. And so he waited 30 years to pass until he could. He was a former stutterer who said to himself, if King George VI could get over his stuttering, then so could I. And hence goes the story of overcoming this major issue (which has emotional and not merely physical roots) while connecting with his speech helper.
The movie zones in on not only the stutter and magnifies the power and lack of power that the spoken word communicates (all subtext), but makes the story very human, and interesting as the film focuses on the King and Lionel Logue, his 'speech defects' therapist, for lack of a better and more accurate term.
The movie flowed well with good story and excellent acting throughout that captured my attention and rewarded it with some funny and very honest moments sprinkled throughout.
Geoffrey Rush was outstanding in playing a common man using his mind and full creative abilities to solve a man's stutter enough to deliver powerful speeches to resist during WWII.
The funniest moment, I shall not reveal, but it has to do with how speech anti-stutter techniques were used. So creative. And honest. AND so funny.
After one key speech, the audience in Roy Thompson Hall spontaneously started clapping. WOW! This was a nice movie. It could have pushed the emotional bar just a bit higher, but nonetheless stuck to its guns and gave an honest and good time. A strong 9/10.