The King's Speech

Starring: Colin Firth, Goeffry Rush, Guy Pearce and Helena Bonham Carter.

Here’s what you know: the prince stammers and, somewhere in this movie a king makes a speech. Probably an important speech. An Ituri Forest pygmy could connect those dots: the stammerer will be King and make that kingly speech. But how? Prince Albert’s opening speech gives little hope. It’s more painful than a pocket full of scorpions. Yet a prince must speak. Albert is relegated to speeches at furniture store grand openings, 4-H competitions, bar-b-ques, and swap meets. Meanwhile the Realm is quietly scoured for any person among the Crown’s subjects who might help the Prince with his dreadful impediment.

Albert’s ailment doesn’t require the intervention of a subject. It demands the care of an equal; a friend perhaps. The problem is the prince has no equal. Nor does he have any friends. Because of his painful affliction, he hides behind the strict protocol of royalty to protect himself. That doesn’t stop his devoted princess from trying. Finally, with all options exhausted, she descends in a claustrophobic lift to the colorless world of the commoner. To the door comes a cheeky Australian man who agrees to take the patient on one condition: he sets the conditions. He meets with the prince and establishes the ground rules. Namely, they will be equals during treatment times. And they will speak on a first name basis, no ifs, ands or royal highnesses. For it is through his crazy cocktail of unorthodox methods that Lionel acquires the key.

Access to the inner chambers of the mind, buried, as these things always are, in the recesses of a long-forgotten childhood, requires the key. Only the person holding the key can unlock that subconscious cave, chase out all the frightening bats, clear the cobwebs and install light. It is the same for us all, prince and pauper alike. The key is trust. We only allow those whom we trust to see behind the mask of our conscious mind and personality. But the prince doesn’t surrender the mask easily.

While they continue to meet secretly, a dizzying sequence of events unfolds. Miss Wallace Simpson bursts on the scene to accelerate the action and eventually clear up the matter of succession. While Prince Edward wallows in Wally, Neville Chamberlain is off to pawn the porch, park and playground to procure peace. Black clouds of war gather over Europe.

Events steam to their inevitable conclusion. The king dies, Albert’s brother ascends to the throne, then abdicates to marry the divorcee, Wally Simpson. On the eve of the worst war the world has ever known, Albert ascends to the throne. Almost immediately the king must address the nation of England and the world beyond. England was at war. He must send fathers, husbands and sons off to war from which many would never return. It was a somber time, and it was one of the most important speeches of that era. At stake was the confidence of his people. With the whole world listening the stammering king steps to the microphone. At his side his friend cheers, mimes and lampoons. Does it work? You'll have to watch the movie to find that out.

They say truth is stranger than fiction and here again that maxim proves true. Like everyone, I knew of the Wally Simpson affair, but I never knew of the affliction King George VI suffered and the unlikely solution and friendship that ensued. All aspects of the movie are sound, if a bit formulaic.

Lush, rich cinematography captures the fog and circumstance of England and its Royalty as the sun set on its empire. Colin Firth brings the right balance of propriety, insecurity, pathos and regal fire to his role as stammering, reluctant prince who has the crown shoved upon him at the kingdom's most dire moment. Geoffry Rush's character, Lionel Logue, revolves in retrograde to the King's. This rakish rogue, failed actor, Australian speech therapist is id to the king's ego. The chemistry between the two actors works nicely. Helena Bonham Carter and Jennifer Ehle, the respective spouses each turn in fine supporting performances as well. Firth will clutch the little gold statuette Sunday, February 27.

4.5 stars