The King’s Speech: A Film Review

“I have a right to because I have a voice!”

Those are the words coming from a man who throughout his life had a stuttering problem, who became King and a voice to a nation who had fallen on hard times and an invasion by the Nazis.

The King’s Speech tells the story of King George VI (Colin Firth) and his wife Queen Elizabeth (Helena Bonham Carter),  who helped her husband find a speech therapist to help him not only deal with his speech stuttering, but to also overcome it and not fear it. The stellar British casts’ performance helped enrich and open a lot of eyes and ears to the world of stutters and make them appreciate who they are and accept them in life.

King George VI (Colin Firth) or known to family members as Bertie developed a stuttering speech problem at a very young age and became flustered when he had to speak in public. His nation expected him to be a great orator like his father King George V (Michael Gambdon) who revolutionized a way to speak to his people through the invention of Radio.

Elizabeth sought hard for different speech therapists because Bertie was expected to speak at public functions such as opening new stores, opening ceremonies of games, etc. Every time he spoke, he barely spoke at all due to his nervousness and stuttering. Elizabeth managed to find an interesting therapist, who not only worked well with his patients, but he was quite controversial in his methods of curing or having his patients cope quite well. That therapist was Lionel Logue (Geoffrey Rush) who was a commoner by British standards, but he loved his family and had a passion for theatre. Logue started treating WWI soldiers who were traumatized by the war and he made headway into treating other patients in his office at home. Logue’s treatment was obscure, he had patients swear aloud; roll on the floor, and other methods that seemed odd and controversial.

Logue and Bertie initially developed a strict relationship of “I’m the client, and you are the therapist.” However, their bond grew to where they became best friends despite their therapist/client relationship. Logue managed to dig deep down to figure out why Bertie was the way he was. However tumultuous it seemed their relationship was Logue was able to successfully help King George VI become the orator; his country expected him to be. 

The dynamic relationship between Firth, Rush and Carter was stellar as they were able to seamlessly bounce through every scene as if they truly lived during that time period. Firth was able to capture the emotional pain one would suffer by trying to enunciate at least one word without stuttering. His performance was so believable, it is no wonder he was able to win the Best Actor at the Academy Awards. Rush, with his peculiar ways of finding the right role, perfectly found his way into the mind of Logue and emanated his spirit as a down on his luck man with a tenacity to help people. Carter has played a role as British Monarchy before in Lady Jane, but this surpasses this and her other roles. She was able to handle the nuisances of keeping in character as a royal, and also maintain the dignity of a wife, searching for help for her loving husband. 

The music composed by Alexandre Desplat, wrote beautiful scores that fit not only the emotional scenes, but also the time period with a country on the brink of war. Every scene was splashed beautifully and meticulously with either an array of colors or just drab scenery to provoke a feeling out of the audience. The musical score was riveting, peaceful at times and sometimes melancholic. It helped enhance the emotions you would feel throughout the film.  

The screenplay was inspired by David Seidler, who himself discovered that King George VI was a stutter himself, and overcame his adversity or was able to work with it and not let it hinder him. David discovered that Logue’s diary did exist still with original notes; David was successful in putting some of those notes into the screenplay. In the scene after Bertie makes his speech Logue comments “You still stammered on the ‘W,’ ” and the king says, “Well, I had to throw in a few so they knew it was me.” The screenplay was written with tense, funny and tender moments that will captivate audiences for years to come.

Director Tom Hooper shined by making this film. He was able to create a polarizing film that can make you cry, captivate you in any moment and cause this serene stillness in your soul. The sets, and atmosphere will immediately transplant you to the 1930s when England was on the brink of war with Germany.

This film was delightful and shows that with support, tenacity and an iron will determination, people will want to change and overcome adversity. It just takes some encouragement, love and positive response to give us that extra oomph to go over the hurdle.

In 2011, NPR did a story about stutterers and their reactions to the film along with them for the first time speaking out about their own stuttering. The article also mentioned the Stuttering Foundation that provides excellent resources for both children and adults alike.

Since there was a royal coronation last month, I found it is fitting to reintroduce this blog post from my old blog. Watch this Academy Award winning film and immerse yourself in a time where being king meant not just showing up, but having a voice to lead one’s nation, and maybe you will discover something about yourself you have never known. 

Check out The King’s Speech today on Peacock today. If you wish to dive more into this world, purchase the book written by David Seildler from Bookshop.org.

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