If you follow movies at all, you surely know by now that
“The King’s Speech” received 12 Oscar nominations. They’re well deserved.
On one level, the film is a “bromance” of opposites.
Prince Albert (Colin Firth), father of Queen Elizabeth and soon to become George VI, King of
England, suffers from a debilitating stammer that court physicians haven’t been
able to cure. The future Queen Mum (Helena Bonham Carter) asks speech therapist
Lionel Logue (Geoffrey Rush) to help. Logue is unorthodox, not the least because he’s from
Australia. In the end, he wins the future king’s trust and enables him discover
the power of his own voice.
The course of their relationship is predictable. Logue
insists on treating “Bertie” as an equal. Bertie is appalled by Logue’s
techniques, until he realizes how well they work. The two have a falling out
but finally reconcile, just as Bertie is about to announce the declaration of
war with Germany over the radio.
According to the notes at the end of the picture, the men remained friends for the rest of their lives. Logue assisted Bertie each
time he had to make a wartime speech and was made a member of the Royal
Victorian Order for his service to the king.
Okay. So far, so good.
The performances of the two “lovers” are what raise this somewhat melodramatic and very
familiar plot far above standard Hollywood fare. Firth doesn’t overdo the
stammer, to his credit, and Rush plays another in a long line of lovable
oddballs. Both are terrific. Their chemistry is, well, heartwarming.
This is a film for people who love words and appreciate how
powerful they are. One scene, perhaps my favorite, demonstrates this idea
better even than the back-and-forth between Bertie and Logue.
Bertie has just been crowned the King of England. He watches
a newsreel of his own coronation. At the end is an extended clip of Hitler
addressing an audience of thousands.
Bertie studies him in awe. His daughter Elizabeth asks him
what Hitler is saying.
Bertie replies, “I don’t know, but he’s saying it awfully
well.”
True, World War I and the treaties that ended it set the
stage for the Second World War. But the war was also fueled by an exceptional
orator, a man who knew how to move masses of people with phrases and gestures.
I kept thinking about the saying I used to hear when I was a
kid: “Sticks and stones with break my bones, but words will never hurt me.”
This movie proves that isn’t true. Hitler’s words wiped out an
entire race, redrew the map of Europe, and could have changed the entire
world, if he'd succeeded. The screenwriter obviously understood that.
So do I.
Against this master orator stands Bertie, a man for whom
speaking is a daily struggle. That he overcame his impediment, rooted deeply in
the abuses of his childhood, and used the words he was finally able to speak to
inspire a nation must be why audiences clapped loudly at the end both times I
saw the movie.
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