‘The King’s Speech’ provides an interesting context to the oft used subject; that of overcoming adversity to attain glory. It pits together, royalty and commonplace and in doing so, brings out stark differences in attitudes, but also, stark similarities in families and life. A royal is no less a person.
The story revolves around Prince Albert, Duke of York, 2nd in line to the throne, who has a stammering problem that he has not been able to overcome. Hence, his persona is not one that inspires confidence in the people of England who are on the verge of World War II. He is referred to an Australian speech therapist, and struggling thespian in his free time, Lionel Logue, a common man who has the temerity to address the Duke as ‘Berty’ and makes him reveal details about his personal life as a way to determine the actual cause of his stammering.
In the mean time, the King dies and Albert’s older brother hesitantly accepts the crown, but abdicates for the love of a commoner. Albert needs to find the courage to lead his people into war and instill in them, the confidence, to win. His speech needs to play a key role in it.
David Seidler’s screenplay is refreshingly different in that it often places the subject at the edge of the screen and not in the middle, to emphasize to the viewer, the reality of the surrounding. The Duke is seated against a paint-scraped wall which is shown in its entirety, to indicate what he is up against. When he looks at Logue, he also looks at all of Logue’s apparatus behind him. When he visit’s Logue’s house, he is shown in a corner, against a wall of cheap wall-paper, emphasizing that he is in a middle class home.
Tom Hooper’s direction is very British, in its control and subtlety of humor. The climax does away with the overly dramatic and is more in-your-face. That is something that you notice, but, that can be put down to the fact that royalty is always in control of emotions.
Colin Firth as Prince Albert delivers a career-best performance. His balance in portraying royal perfection and a human imperfection is splendid as is his comic timing and emotional outburst. Geoffrey Rush, as a cynical Aussie guiding Albert is full of poker faced humor as he dissects Albert’s problem to help him overcome the stammer.
‘The King’s Speech’ is a good adversity film, with a subtle touch to it.