You know the setup to this film: the Duke of York has a terrible stammer. Yet, his position demands that he make public appearances and make speeches. World War II is looming and the Duke becomes a King who needs to make an important radio speech. Colin Firth plays the troubled Duke and Helena Bonham Carter plays his devoted wife who finds Lionel Logue (played by Geoffrey Rush), an unconventional speech therapist. Firth and Rush are terrific in their roles so expect Oscar nominations. Helena Bonham Carter always brightens the screen, but she isn’t given much to do. The plot is predictable, but the strong performances keep you watching. GRADE: A-
Precisely my review. I was surprised when I saw HBC mentioned for an Oscar. She barely made a dent in it. I sometimes feel like her career has been horribly mismanaged.
I love Helena Bonham Carter, Patti, but she’s been in some bad movies and made some bad career moves.
She’s definitely an odd duck.
Somehow I’m pretty sure they’ve overplayed the importance of this one speech. I remember a short scene in one of my favorite movies, HOPE AND GLORY, where you hear part of the King’s speech at Christmas and one of the characters says “he was much better this year,” trying to convince himself as much as others.
It had little to do with the success or failure of the war, however.
I didn’t know the back story of THE KING’S SPEECH, Jeff. I love historical movies and this is one of the better ones.
HBC great in CONVERSATIONS WITH OTHER WOMEN. Haven’t seen too much else that gives her much of a challenge.
Kate Laity’s note that the therapist’s late, misty-eyed assessment of the monarch as One of the Bravest Men I’ve Ever Known (I paraphrase) tends to leave out those actually doing the fighting reinforced my first impression that this is a very facile bit of business, that I’ll probably catch on cable on a dull afternoon if nothing better to do suggests itself.
Well, he is the King, Todd. There’s going to be some idolization going on. But I took that “He’s one of the bravest men I’ve ever known” line to mean Firth’s character could have dodged his speaking responsibilities (perhaps hiring an actor to impersonate him as Churchill did) instead of manning up and overcoming his disability.
George – this is one I want to see when it comes to Netflix… and makes it to the top of the queue.
Jeff, Patti – I like HBC a lot, especially in the merchant Ivory films.
Todd – you have dull afternoons? Unbelievable.
You’ll like THE KING’S SPEECH, Rick. It’s well acted and well directed.