FILM REVIEW: 'THE KING'S SPEECH'

The Old Broad Chalks This One Up As a Favorite Film of the Year

By: Clare Elfman

December 26, 2010

(The Weinstein Company) What exactly is this? A film about  a king and a commoner? About a stutterer and a remarkable teacher? About two men at opposite ends of the social ladder? About the kind of gut-wrenching, stomach-churning, heart -thumping fear that stops us from getting what we most desire? Or a film about the arrogance of a king with no self-confidence and the self-confidence of an ordinary bloke who knows who he is?  Actually, it’s all of these, and performed by a “royal” cast to boot. The King’s Speech is a very special film--a bit more than just “entertainment.”  

Let me imply nothing negative about “just entertainment.” A diverting couple of hours and then you put it away:  a good fight, a good scare, some fascinating sex, ooh I never saw that body part on the screen before; a hungry vampire, a chain saw cutting flesh, a college party cum drugs and mad lovemaking, a chase where the car turns over five times and the hero doesn’t even have a stiff neck... You’ve had a fun few hours. But when you leave a film like The King’s Speech, you leave the theater genuinely moved, touched by the author’s insight and the actors' portrayal. And you’ve learned a bit of history.

Plot--only a few spoilers. I’d hate to take the edge off the good bits. And there are some really good bits, mostly from Colin Firth. Time: just before WWII. The Duke of York is younger brother to the man who is shortly to be known as the Duke of Windsor--the man who gave up the British throne for the woman he loved.  Bertie, the Duke of York, stammers. His father, the king, is brutally  critical of  Bertie’s “impediment.” His  brother teases him unmercifully. Bertie can’t even deliver a very short speech without suffering, choking to get the words out. And as we watch this failed effort, we suffer with him, our own vocal chords tight, sensing his anguish.  

A terrible war is churning in Europe. The older brother, next in line for the throne, is having an affair with a woman not only twice divorced but possibly a German sympathizer. And the stuttering Duke knows that, unless his brother relents, he’s liable to have to take the throne and he doesn’t want it! He chokes on it! He’s so damn stuck, and we know what that feels like because we’ve all been stuck at one time or another. This is the ultimate “stuck.”

Bertie has been treated by conventional doctors who stuff marbles in his mouth like “enry Higgens of Pygmalion.  Just makes it worse. He’s caught, and he’s totally frustrated.  His wife hears of an extraordinary speech therapist--no title, no diploma or credentials--who has successfully cured shell-shocked WWI soldiers. But this teacher refuses to come to the palace to give private lessons.  He treats in his office, patients must call him by his first name, and he calls his patient by a first name. Bertie is arrogant, he has a volatile temper, and he’s actually never in his life had a friendship with a “commoner.” After one visit, he bolts, only to realize that the teacher has certain idiosyncratic skills. Now the possibility of the crown threatens.  He suddenly remembers an early session in which he’s been able to swear in anger without stuttering.  A must-see scene.

Also, you meet Bertie’s children. One is the now octogenarian Queen Elizabeth, and you remember the sad history of her younger sister. Today’s papers are full of court gossip, and here you see where it all started.

This is not only an intimate story of the British royal family, but the cast is also “royal." Colin Firth played delightful comedy--one of my great favorites--Love Actually, as well as a really fine dramatic film, A Single Man, which explores the poignant sadness of a man who, back a few years, when gays were not out of the closet, has lost his gay partner. His sensitive portrait of a man so broken by loss of love that life has lost its meaning was exceptional.   Geoffrey Rush played a comedy role in the delightful Shakespeare in Love, as well as a touching, dramatic role in a small, underrated film called Lantana, in which he plays the husband of a dead woman suspected to be murdered. Michael Gambon came to fame in 1986 with his role in Singing Detective, and if you never saw this one, rent it. Claire Bloom looks as good now as she did back in 1963 in my all-time favorite scary film, The Haunting of Hill House, which was so badly remade a few years back, it hurt me to watch it. Timothy Spall is familiar from Mike Leigh’s films--a pudgy guy with a double chin, an absolute master of drama and comedy. Just see him as the actor who plays the Mikado in Topsy Turvy; and of course the inimitable Helena Bonham Carter, now of Harry Potter fame, but see her in the 1992 Howard’s End and in the wonderful A Room with a View.

A regal cast in a touching and totally satisfying film--one I plan on seeing a second time. Directed by Tom Hooper who did Prime Suspect; written by David Seidler. What a great couple of hours in the movies. And, oddly, the perfect Christmas film, since it portrays true friendship, acceptance, willingness to give up self and help the other...and isn’t that the true spirit of the holiday?  How  many films these days show us the true spirit of loving-kindness? And oh in these sarcastic, cynical, self-absorbed, self-motivated times, do we ever need it.

…at least so says the Old Broad, who chalks this one up as a favorite film of the year.