Review of The King's Speech

"The King's Speech" is the best film of 2010, simple as that.
Classic, rousing entertainment loaded with both humor and poignancy, the film feels like a throwback in many ways.
It's "Rocky" with elocution instead of fists. It's "The Queen" with laughs. It's one of those dreary films about repressed Brits, except with a happy ending.
And yet it's also a wonderfully brilliant meditation on the nature of friendship and responsibility, on social stature and self-imprisonment, and on man's drive to improve, thrive, excel.
Colin Firth stars as the eventual King George VI, second in line to the British throne as the film begins in the '30s. Even though he's respected, brave and bright, Bertie — as he's known to his few intimates — has a terrible stammer that's hugely awkward in public moments.
Radio and amplification have made speaking a large new part of royal and political life, and Europe is being stirred up by two literally hysterically good speakers: Hitler and Mussolini. Shudder to think what will happen if Bertie becomes the speaking voice of England.
And, of course, that's what happens when Bertie's party boy brother Edward (Guy Pearce) abdicates the throne to marry his American mistress.
Luckily, Bertie's wife (Helena Bonham Carter) sees such a day approaching and hooks up Bertie with an eccentric Australian speech therapist, Lionel Logue (Geoffrey Rush).
At first, the variance in social status is too great for Bertie to bear; he has little experience dealing with commoners, and especially not one who demands equal footing. But eventually Bertie comes to trust Logue; they even become friends as Logue tries to uncover the roots of Bertie's stammer.
Friendship doesn't come easy to a man who's been addressed as "Your Royal Highness" all his life. But Bertie and Logue push on — for the good of England and the good of their own two souls.
All of this might seem — and certainly could have been — fairly stiff stuff. But director Tom Hooper ("The Damned United") and veteran writer David Seidler (who has wrestled with a stammer) have infused the film with so many funny spots — from Bertie's witty self-deprecations to Logue's tongue tricks to Bonham Carter's dry observations — that the film is every bit as comic as it is dramatic.
One comic bit involves Bertie spitting out a slew of swear words as a means of breaking through the stammer. Watching the rigidly proper Bertie explode this way is hilarious, but the humorless rigidly proper Motion Picture Association slapped an R rating on the film as a result, which is outright stupid because otherwise "The King's Speech" may be the most wholesome film of the year.
The acting in this film — well, really, just about everything in this film from wallpaper to costuming — is superb.
The building of the relationship between the relaxed but passionate Logue and the near-stifled Bertie is so natural you feel in the story with them; and the love between Bertie and his wife somehow transcends social strictures.
Firth and Rush are shoo-in Oscar nominees, as should be Bonham Carter, and the film will be battling with "The Social Network" for best picture honors.
No matter what, the audience wins big with "The King's Speech" as the film hits all the right notes on the way to its triumphant finale.
Well done, all. Seriously — well done.