Movie Review: The King's Speech

As mentioned in an earlier post, DirecTV gave me three movie credits for being such a loyal customer – aren’t they sweet? So, last night I ordered "The King’s Speech" as the second of my three free movies. The King’s Speech came out on DVD yesterday and was available to DirecTV viewers the same day – they are good like that.

So, after overcoming a small technical difficulty – I’m not always the most technologically savvy person – I settled in for a night at home with "The King’s Speech".

If you know much about me, then you probably know that I pretty much love all things British – books, movies, etc. and so I was really excited to watch this film and was glad it was finally available to watch in my home since never made it out to the movie theater to see it.

By now I’m sure you all know the story of "The King’s Speech" since it was the Oscar winner for Picture of the Year and had a lot of press as a result of that. The story is about King George VI and his speech impediment and how he was able to overcome that with the help of a speech therapist, Lionel Logue.

The movie tells of how Logue came to be the king’s speech therapist and also shows some of the more unconventional methods the King tried prior to working with Logue. When the movie begins, George VI is still known as Prince Albert, the Duke of York since he has not yet become king. The story of how he came to be king is also recalled in the film and was quite interesting as I was unfamiliar with how it all came about.

The film also follows closely how George and Logue become friends and actually more like family. The film ends after the king delivers his first wartime speech in 1939 when Britain declares war with Germany during World War II.

Although it may not sound like the most mesmerizing film, I found it to be quite interesting and very entertaining. The historical aspect of it was also very fascinating to me as the older I get, I cannot seem to get enough history. There were a few times when I laughed out loud. The movie has a great cast – Helena Bonham Carter plays King George’s wife Elizabeth, Colin Firth (love his films!) plays King George and the always wonderful Geoffrey Rush plays Lionel Logue. There were quite of few of the Harry Potter actors in the film as well (Wormtail and Dumbledore) which makes for a fun time of, “where do I know him from? Oh, right he was in Harry Potter”.

This movie was absolutely delightful and I would definitely recommend it if you are looking for something enjoyable and interesting to watch. This film was certainly worthy of the Best Picture nod it received from the Academy. Go rent it today!