This film delivers great entertainment, not only in the portrayal of an actual event, but telling the tale of a commoner – and Aussie nevertheless – who manages to befriend the King. And while that may not seem quite so outlandish here in New Zealand, I can vouch for that fact that it would seem impossible in England. I lived there for a number of years and am well aware of the reverence and awe that the royal family are held in. I can see a number of people openly smirking at this idea.
And yet it is indeed a true tale. Many years put on hold at the request of the Queen Mother until her death, as it was her late husband at the centre of this tale. The king in question is George VI, formerly Albert, the Duke of York (Colin Firth), whom we first see about to address a crowd at Wembley in 1925. He looks more like a man about to step up to the gallows, for Albert is afflicted with a terrible stammer, and the large clunky microphone rearing in front of him will amplify his every tortured gulp and gasp. About him his courtiers look embarrassed, while his subjects look merely bewildered. That stammer might have become an historical footnote, but 11 years later his older brother David would, as Edward VIII, abdicate as king in order to marry American divorcee Wallis Simpson. Requiring a voice to go with his unexpected accession to the throne, Albert tries various decidely odd remedies, including putting marbles in his mouth, but his tongue refuses to untangle.
Meanwhile, an Australian expat named Lionel Logue (Geoffrey Rush) is earning a living as a speech therapist in a grotty basement office on Harley Street, where one day a certain well-spoken lady arrives seeking a cure for her husband’s speech impediment. She would be Elizabeth (Helena Bonham Carter) – the future Queen Mother – and her husband, dawdling in the shadows, none other than Albert. “What should I call you?” asks Logue. “Your Royal Highness,” he replies. Logue calls him “Bertie” instead, thus setting up a comedy of manners between a jolly Aussie commoner and his morose, exasperated monarch. Can this brash colonial enable the royal stiff to unbend? Logue may have no formal qualifications in his chosen profession, but he turns out to be rather good at it, coaxing from his fearful patient what may in time be the performance of his life.
I personally loved this movie, for a number of reasons. I felt it was supremely acted, and thus thoroughly deserving of its Oscar, but it also had a marvellous premise and a fantastic screenplay. I have a habit of preferring movies with typical action scenes and special effects, or something new like 3D. This film had none of that – just a great story told really well. Top entertainment.
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