The King's Speech

Like most people I have a tendency to define myself by opposition. Not being like those other guys is an important part of how I see me. Now I find that there are a good many of these other people, and as a consequence it has become one of my internal rules that the greater the number of people telling you something is good the lower the chances are that this wil be true, and in order to keep believing this obvious logical fallacy I will often avoid things that receive universal acclaim. In case I like it, in case I were to become one of them.

Everybody loved The King's Speech. It won numerous popular awards. And it was British; It would be overly sentimental and manipulative and would contain a scene in which someone shouts a string of obscenities. It's an almost perfect storm of things I would naturally avoid. But then again, I do like Geoffrey Rush.

Fortunately, or perhaps unfortunately, depending on your perspective, "everyone" happens to be right in this case. It is a really good film. It is sentimental, it is manipulative (it does have the swearing scene) but manages to be so in ways that I actively enjoyed, in that it mainly comes through in the acting and gives the two leads some serious meat to work with. Rush is good, certainly, allowed to be charismatic and fun, but it is Colin Firth and his performance that really drives the film.

Sympathising with such a removed character might have proven difficult with a less able thespian at the helm, but Firth is able to draw great humanity and depth from a character trapped between his obligations and impediment. His impressive affected stammer is often painful to behold. Both he and the script ably lay the ground work for one of the most interesting individual scenes I've seen for some time.

By the time we reach the films key moment we're so invested in his voice, in the manner in which he speaks and the significance, both globally and personally behind his words, that every line, every syllable of his famous radio address carries intense poignancy. I am admittedly especially keen on speech and it's methods, but I found it entirely delightful.