Review: The King's Speech

Review: The King's Speech

Rating: ***1/2

Nonna's Rating: $$$

Rotten Tomatoes: 96%

Audience: 95%

After the driest movie months ever: August, September, October, and most of November, I began to read the superlative reviews of The King's Speech. I worried. More hype? More critics in the pay of the movie moguls? (Call me cynical.) I finally saw the film yesterday and was very pleased. More applause after a movie than I've heard since Toy Story 3 -- and that was from spontaneous, unselfconscious children.

The King's Speech is that good. Colin Firth as stuttering King George VI ("Bertie"), Geoffrey Rush as his "speech therapist," Lionel Logue, and Helena Bonham-Carter as the future Queen Mum are all magnificent and deserve to be nominated for just about any award.

From everything I've read (and now seen), George VI was a man so blighted by his privileged childhood and tyrannical father, that he was almost incapable of happiness. He had greatness thrust upon him and wanted none of it. He was the right man for the job, but, oh my, he was born into "interesting times." His story is compelling and heartbreaking at the same time.

The film has an "R" rating, unfortunately, because His Royal Highness drops the F-bomb 17 times in the course of his therapy. Now, really! What is this frackin' world coming to?

I didn't give the film four stars for one reason: much of the gravitas and importance of this movie is derived from its subject alone -- not the abilities of the cinematographer, the actors, the director, or the writers. We finally care because it's about Queen Elizabeth's dad.

Nonna's Ratings:

$$$$ = Worth paying the Friday evening price
$$$= Worth paying the Matinee price

$$= Worth a rental
$ = Wait for cable
# = Skip it