The King's Speech

I went to see The King’s Speech on Saturday. What a great film! Incidentally, going back to what we were saying about titles last time, what a terrific title, too. A well-known phrase that’s given an enhanced meaning is one of those titles which is so exactly right, nothing else would do.  The King’s Speech is perfectly cast, brilliantly written and really does seem to strike a chord across all ages.  16 year old Jenny loved it, 23 year old Jessica loved it, plus all the Gordon-Smiths in between and my 88 year old Dad, which is some trick to pull off.

As everyone knows by now, the story is about Bertie, the future George the Sixth, who has a terrible stammer that can render him virtually dumb.  As afflictions go, that might not seem too bad, but we’re immediately shown just what that means.  Bertie is commanded by his father, King George the Fifth, to give the closing address at the massive Wembley Empire Exhibition, an address not only to the huge crowd but, through the medium of the BBC, to a quarter of the world’s population. And he can’t speak.  As the silence lengthens, we can feel the poor man dying the death before the silent, waiting crowd.

How Bertie finds his voice makes enthralling viewing, as he reluctantly learns to trust the cheerfully irreverent Australian speech therapist, Lionel Logue. It’s a personal quest at first, prompted by his wife, Elizabeth, and then, with the Abdication crisis and the rise of Nazi Germany, the stakes get much higher.  Bertie’s brother, the gifted, handsome, loquacious David, the man who should be king, who’d been beloved by society and the people all through the 20’s and 30’s, who brought glamour and style to the throne after the stodginess of George the Fifth, doesn’t want to be king.  With war looming, he walks away from the job.  Hitler (a man who was never stuck for words!) is inspiring the Germans to war.  Bertie is the King and simply has to speak.

As I said, it’s perfectly written, cast and acted. The thing about really good acting, as with really good writing, is that, when you’re watching or reading, you’re living in the world.  It’s only afterwards you realise how good the acting and writing has been.  Helena Bonham-Carter (last seen as the gleefully over the top, completely barking,  Bellatrix Lestrange) is outstanding.  It’s a very subtle performance.  It’d be easy, with such a personal film about royalty, to pretend that everyone is just dead ordinary really, that they’d actually be happier as Mrs Average living in a bungalow and all this fame nonsense is just for show.  Helena Bonham-Carter doesn’t do that.  We’re always aware of who she is and, at the same time, always rooting for her.

When The King’s Speech first came out I thought speech therapy sounded a really odd premise for a film.  (I mean, where’s the conflict? Where’s the chase? Where’s the explosions? Where’s the story, for pete’s sake?)   To work at all, it would have to be brilliantly done.  It is.