The King's Speech

Colin Firth plays Queen Elizabeth's dad, King George VI in another one of those fine classy historical dramas British filmmakers are so good at making.

After King George V (Michael Gambon) dies, his first born son Edward (Guy Pearce) decides that he'd rather dally with Mrs. Simpson (Eve Best) a not very attractive divorced lady than become King of England, so he abdicates in favor of his smart but stuttering brother Bertie (Colin Firth). Since Edward was a Nazi sympathizer, its probably best for Britain that he did.

But Bertie suffers from stuttering. In another age, this wouldn't be that bad a problem. But in the 1930's radio is in full bloom and the King is expected to speak to his subjects. Bertie has tried all sorts of remedies with no luck until his wife (Helena Bonham Carter) brings him to the offices of Lionel Logue (Geoffrey Rush).

To the frustration of Bertie, Logue calls him by his first name and uses techniques that he doesn't understand. As time goes by the two men develop a new found respect and friendship.

This is a terrific film. You should go see it.

Firth will win the academy award for best performance. Rush will win for best supporting actor. Both are great. The picture looks authentic and is realy well directed.

But perhaps my favorite performance in the film is of Helena Bonham Carter. Those who remember the Queen Mum (as they used to call Queen Elizabeth's mom) remember her as the charming and warm member of the royal family. She was the nations grandma and it seemed everybody liked her. What Carter does is capture the Queen Mum's essence as a young lady. I could easily see the woman who would become that older lady in Carter's precise performance. Though she failed to disrobe, I loved her performance.

I think one of the signs of a good historical film is that after you see it, you go home and read more about it. And that's exactly what I did (after pleasuring my date of course).

I loved reading about Edward and how the family banished him from England for years under the threat of cutting him off entirely. I was not surprised to find director Tom Hooper had done a number of historical projects, notably the John Adams mini-series. I was surprised to find writer David Seider was just the opposite. An older guy, he mostly wrote pap like "Kung Fu Killer", "Malice in Wonderland" and "Come On, Get Happy; The Partridge Family Story". He makes his mother proud here.

After a pretty crappy year for films, its nice to see it end on a high note.