Royally Speechless

Two Sundays ago I sat down to finally watch The King's Speech, I had been wanting to see it since I heard it was nominated for an Academy Award. When the titles of the movies that have been nominated for Best Picture get announced it is always my plan to see them before the show and it never happens. The only movie I saw beforehand was True Grit, I would like to say kudos to Matt Damon, I don't think he got enough credit for his performance in that movie. But this post is certainly not about Matt Damon. As I was saying, I sat down to watch The King's Speech on a Sunday afternoon and my anticipation to see it had grown since it won for Best Picture.

I was immediately drawn into this movie within the first few minutes, Colin Firth (<3) plays the Duke of York, son of King George, known only to his friends as "Bertie", and he is about to speak publicly. The anxiety that buzzes through this scene before he steps out in front of the crowd pulses through you and before you even hear him speak you empathize with this man you see on the screen in front of you wearing a top hat. It makes you think of the first time you were called upon to either do a presentation in grade school or of your first time of being truly bitterly embarrassed in front of total strangers. You hear him speak into the microphone and you hear his stammer, and whether or not you've known about his speech impediment before you watched the movie, you are taken aback and think, omg, how does someone who is a very public figure deal with this? And the answer you soon find out is, he doesn't. He deals with this unfortunate disability like a child throwing a temper tantrum. It is at this time that his wife (Helena Bonham Carter) takes it upon herself to hire Lionel Logue (Geoffrey Rush) a speech therapist. He admits his methods are unorthodox and strange, Bertie and he meet and things do not go well, he is very guarded, uncomfortable and embarrassed. He does not return to see Lionel for awhile and when he does he lays down the law, however Lionel is not one to be told what to do.

Their relationship grows from that of future king and speech therapist to being great friends, Bertie had been seeing everyone to help him with his speech and with the exception of his wife, his children and of course, Lionel, they are all impatient, mean and completely unsympathetic to his condition. He gets a cold "Spit it out" or people perceive that he is unintelligent because he can not convey what he is trying to say. His temper sprouts from people's insensitivity and it is completely reasonable considering how difficult it is to express yourself through speech. Whether at an event, giving a speech or just having a conversation, nothing comes out easily, and living with this every time you open your mouth, you'd be pretty pissed off too.

The delightful Guy Pearce makes a surprise appearance in this as Prince David, I am always happy to look at him in a movie. This movie was absolutely deserving of all it's nominations and wins. By the end of the movie I couldn't peel my eyes from the screen, it was that good. The cinematography and coloring are beautiful, it is so nice to see a movie that is just plain enjoyable from every single way you look at it. You see a man completely transform his life and come out the other side swinging, it was a very inspiring. If you haven't seen this I highly reccommend it. Farewell for now & happy viewing!