Fresh Reviews: "The King's Speech"

Rated R for a little strong language. This film has absolutely no sex or violence and is a very uplifting and inspirational movie, and just because the lead character says the "F" word a few times (in the midst of intense therapy sessions) it gets an R rating. Doesn't make much sense to me.

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It isn't true that only big studio, commercial Hollywood movies have formulas... it's just that the more "artistic", independent and foreign releases have different KINDS of formulas. One of the best known of these is the legendary "Oscar Bait" movie, the kind of film in which the film makers are obviously familiar with exactly the kinds of movies that most often are awarded the big prizes,and then go ahead and try to include as many of those key elements as possible. Case in point, "The King's Speech": it's a real-life slice of British history, the story of a king, it's filled with a cast featuring some of the most brilliant (and Oscar-nominated & winning) actors on the planet, and on top of all that it's being promoted as an inspirational, uplifting film. You couldn't do much more unless the king had some kind of physical or mental handicap. But here's the thing: sometimes movies that seem to be made to formula actually work despite the obviousness of the formula.

"The King's Speech" is the story of Prince Albert (eventually to become King George the Sixth) of England. Second in line to the throne after his brother, his severe stammering makes him an embarassment to the royal family in the early age of radio, when monarchs are expected to speak inspiringly to the nation on the new medium. After many attempts at speech therapy have failed, he finds a very unorthodox therapist named Lionel Logue, who might have the key to success... with his insistence on treating the future king as just another client, working him into a rage frequently, and many other unorthodox treatments. But when his brother Edward resigns the throne to marry a "commoner" from America, Albert becomes King George and will immediately have to inspire his nation in the early days of World War II. Will he be able to find it in himself?

The key to a story about the wealthy and powerful, to me, always has to be finding the common humanity in the character... to make it a story about someone with the same hopes, fears, dreams and pains as everyone else, and who just HAPPENS TO be among the powerful elite. That's something that "The King's Speech" does in spades. Prince Albert is portrayed as a man who has been beaten down by the lack of faith and love from his father, from the favoritism shown to his brother (who continually insults him even after he... Edward... becomes king), and the constant feeling that he is undeserving of all that he's achieved simply by being born into his family. The man is an emotional wreck, and this manifests itself in his inability to (literally) find his own voice. This is the sort of thing that many people in all walks of life have experienced in their own way, and regardless of your feelings toward royalty or the elite, it's difficult not to feel Albert/George/s pain.

And as far as the cast of the best actors on the planet... whether or not it was a deliberate attempt at Oscar Bait, the result is some of the strongest performances around. Colin Firth and Geoffrey Rush will absolutely deserve the Oscar nominations they will undoubtedly both get as King George and Logue, respectively. In particular, the slow, grudging friendship that eventually forms between the two seems very authentic as it eventually winds up inspiring both of them to be better people. I think that it would have been all too easy to make Logue a rather colorless, bland character given the supporting nature of the role, but Rush makes him every bit as fascinating as the king... an actor who failed in that dream and doesn't seem to be getting very far as a therapist until his royal client comes along. And the smallest supporting roles are exceptionally memorable, thanks to the presence of Timothy Spall as Winston Churchill and Derek Jacobi as the archbishop of Westminster Abbey.

The movie is enough to actually give inspirational films a good name: it succeeds grandly in giving us a rousing conclusion that will send the audience out of the theatre in a spirit of uplift. But I think one of the reasons for this success is its total lack of solemnity and pretentiousness: the film is often one of the funniest in recent memory. The interaction between Firth and Rush often has the rhythm and timing of a great comedy team, and there was more than a little laughter among the audience at the theatre where I saw it. A classic bit of Oscar Bait would almost never be so undignified as to seem silly, and that's one of things I admire most about "The King's Speech".

I don't happen to think that this is the actual best movie of the year, though I think it stands a good chance of winning that award. It is, however, a much better film than I would have expected it to be, and one that I would recommend to almost anyone. And it's entirely possible that it DOES actually contain the two best performances of the year. And that's certainly enough for me to say that anyone who gets the chance should check out "The King's Speech". This time around, Oscar Bait is genuinely Oscar Worthy.