THE KING’S SPEECH [2011] – short review

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In the mid 1930s, King George V of England is concerned about the immediate future of the monarchy.  His eldest son David, first in line, is in a relationship with an American divorcee and thereby unsuitable, and his younger son Albert speaks with a stammer.  When George dies, David takes over but soon abdicates, leaving Albert as ruler.  A King with a stammer, especially in an increasingly communicative age, will not do, so he asks for help from a speech therapist called Lionel………….

The sort of film that automatically gets praised to the skies by the critics, I wasn’t expecting much from this movie, especially as I can’t stand the monarchy and consider them an irrelevance since the English Civil War.  However, The King’s Speech is undoubtably a pretty good movie, though certainly not a great one-it suffers from murky and ill lit cinematography rather unfitting for the subject [maybe they were intentionally going for the opposite approach to the norm but they overdid it], and a King who doesn’t seem to make much progress in his speech therapy for most of the film then suddenly overcomes it.  Plus if I hear those two overused Beethoven pieces used near the end in one more film I’m going to scream.  Still, this does manage to be a quite compelling portrait of somebody overcoming what amounts to a disability [especially considering I personally used to stutter a lot and still do at times], and the final scene is pretty rousing – comparisons to Rocky are not entirely unjustified.  Director Tom Hooper does all he can to make the static story cinematic, and the performances are superb, though I think Geoffrey Rush, as the  King’s tutor, has been overlooked in the stampede to praise Colin Firth-he matches Firth in every scene they are in together, making their scenes terrific to watch and any scenes not featuring them not nearly as interesting.  Not perfect, but I say to anyone who has no interest in this film and just considers it Oscar bait-give it a go and you’ll be pleasantly surprised. I was.

Rating: ★★★★★★★☆☆☆

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About Dr Lenera 1999 Articles
I'm a huge film fan and will watch pretty much any type of film, from Martial Arts to Westerns, from Romances [though I don't really like Romcoms!]] to Historical Epics. Though I most certainly 'have a life', I tend to go to the cinema twice a week! However,ever since I was a kid, sneaking downstairs when my parents had gone to bed to watch old Universal and Hammer horror movies, I've always been especially fascinated by horror, and though I enjoy all types of horror films, those Golden Oldies with people like Boris Karloff and Christopher Lee probably remain my favourites. That's not to say I don't enjoy a bit of blood and gore every now and again though, and am also a huge fan of Italian horror, I just love the style.

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