A tender, delightful and little known historical tale to add to your holiday must-see list.
I’ll admit, I dreaded screening THE KING’S SPEECH – a British period drama about a stuttering royal figure? How could this not be boring? Yet not only is this movie entertaining, it’s delightfully so: funny, touching, inspiring, educational and, in my opinion, fully deserving of a Best Picture nod.
Director Tom Hooper introduces us to Albert (Colin Firth) - or “Bertie” to those close to him - England’s handsome and dignified Duke of York in the 1920’s. Bertie’s father, stern King George V (Michael Gambon), shrieks at him to overcome a stifling speech impediment. Why all the fuss? While Bertie’s notoriously philandering older brother David (Guy Pearce) is next in line to the throne, the king is convinced David will plunge the royal family into ruin thanks to his consistently scandalous behavior. He feels that Bertie should therefore be prepared for the worst and be forced to take the crown for himself one day – and a stutter won’t work in that equation. Sure enough, the king dies, David becomes Edward VIII - and the new king immediately embroils himself in scandal upon announcing his intention to wed an American divorcee.
Through the course of this unfolding royal soap opera the crux of the film plays out: after a succession of disastrous speech therapy consultations with quacks of all stripes, Bertie’s devoted wife Elizabeth (Helena Bonham Carter) engages the services of an eccentric Mr. Lionel Logue (Geoffrey Rush). Logue’s daily regimen of unorthodox treatments to Elizabeth’s quite reserved hubby results in an initially volatile reaction from the new patient, though he mellows out on the sessions with time. The sessions take on new urgency however as Edward VIII abruptly abdicates, Bertie is crowned King George VI and all of England looks to him for strong-voiced leadership through the commencement of war with Hitler.
>> Read the rest at Upcoming-Movies.com
No comments:
Post a Comment