The King’s Speech (2010)

Directed by: Tom Hooper
Written by: David Seidler

THE BEAVER–No, this movie is not about lady parts. It’s about a bad, bad man who is trying to redeem himself. Mel Gibson stars in this Jodie Foster film about a man who finds a beaver puppet and can suddenly talk about his problems with his family.

It sounds like a crappy Zack Galifinakis movie, but it’s played totally straight. Dammit, Mel. I’m trying really hard to hate you. But this movie looks, strangely enough, like it could be interesting.

CEDAR RAPIDS–40 Year Old Virgin on a trip. Even the font and color is the same. This time, though, it’s Ed Helms who goes on the road with John C Riley. Looks pretty funny, but also like I’ve seen it all before. With those guys, though, it’s probably worth checking out.

THE ADJUSTMENT BUREAU–Matt Damon stars as a politician who falls for a girl he just met (Emily Blunt). Unfortunately, fate says that he should not see her again. And the men who run fate (including Terence Stamp) will change the world to make sure that they don’t. Totally into this one.

JANE EYRE–I’m pretty sure that this is the first version of this story to be shot as a Gothic horror film. It actually makes me want to see the movie, which has never happened with this particular story. I’ll be seeing it…at least at some point.

Ok. Stammering on.

One of my biggest fears is public speaking. The absolute terror of it makes my stomach drop to my nuts and my mouth dry out so much that cacti would have a problem growing there. The amazing thing about this movie is that it gave me that feeling.

Bertie (Colin Firth) has a horrible stammer. He can barely get a full sentence out without pausing for 30 seconds or so. This would be difficult for anyone, but it’s especially difficult if you happen to be the Duke of Wales and have to give speeches every so often.

After years of treatments from different people, the Duke’s wife, Liz (Helena Bonham Carter in her most normal role in a long time), tries one more time. Lionel Logue (Geoffrey Rush) is a speech therapist who can hopefully work miracles. He immediately becomes more comfortable with Bertie than Bertie really wants him to be. That’s the only way that the therapy can work, though, according to Lionel.

A movie about someone overcoming a speech impediment doesn’t sound particularly interesting. Make that someone a public official and it becomes a tiny bit more interesting. Make him the King of England during the pre-WWII days and it suddenly becomes infinitely more interesting. Add to that three actors in top form and you’ve got the Oscar dream team.

The movie isn’t just about a king and his speech. It’s about the image of a politician. It takes place at a point in history when, suddenly, world leaders had to be able to speak on this new invention called the Radio and, occasionally, look good on film. Their image became as important as their leadership ability.

We may never recover from that changeover.

This is a great, great movie. Like Frost/Nixon in 2008, it tells the story of a seemingly small part of history that we don’t all know about, but it had a great impact on our image of how history went down.