The King's Speech

The King's Speech (2010) looks like a royal picture. What it is actually about is much smaller and much closer to home: not being able to speak. When his brother abdicates, Bertie becomes king without wanting to. He has a stammer, and in the age of radio a king's entire job is to talk. He goes to Lionel Logue, an Australian speech therapist with no medical qualification who insists on calling him by his first name. Most of the film takes place in one room with two men in it. Colin Firth does not perform the stammer, he seizes with it, and the audience seizes along with him. Geoffrey Rush refuses to pity him, which is the reason the film works. Tom Hooper keeps placing the characters at the edge of the frame on wide lenses so the rooms seem to swallow them. That is deliberate. Some history is smoothed: the relationship with Logue began considerably earlier, and Churchill's real position was different. Good for: period drama, true stories, and two hander performances. Fine with family. Less good for: a couple of scenes are heavy with swearing. Anyone expecting war or court intrigue will not get it. This is small and inward.