Review of The King's Speech (2010) by Bec215 — 04 Jan 2011

I'm glad, in the end, that this movie took so long to bring to the screen (the Queen Mother asked it not be made until after her death) because this movie belongs to Colin Firth and Geoffrey Rush. Firth has a rare gravitas and elegance to play a royal like few actors alive, and Rush keeps his character slightly off-kilter, without ever slipping into camp or silliness. Bonham-Carter is genius as the Queen Mum - a woman who in life was far from the (figuratively) sterile royal cliche... I like to think of her as a proto-Diana. The movie benefits from the relatively spare set decoration - it would have been so easy to go the usual path and turn the decor into another character... but keeping it wisely in the background, the trio are kept front-and-center, as they should be in a character-driven movie.

You don't have to be a 'film' fan to love this movie. Everyone cheers for an underdog. In sum, this movie lives up to the hype, and coming on the heels of A Single Man and a resume to die for, should firmly cement Firth as one of, if not the, finest actor of his generation.