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‘The King’s Speech’
is one movie that generated a huge Oscar buzz before the Academy
Awards, held in February. The critics raved about British actor Colin
Firth’s performance and kept tipping him for the Best Actor award, a
tightly contested category, against other solid movies like ‘The
Fighter’ and ‘The Social Network’.

Firth eventually
took home the Oscar, earned for a moving portrayal of an English
monarch, King George VI, who suffered from a speech impediment. ‘The
King’s Speech’ tells the true story of the one-time Duke of York and
father to the present-day Queen of England, and how he battled with his
stuttering.

However, there is
also the story of King George’s chance ascension to the throne due to
his elder brother Edward VIII’s abdication of the throne to marry
American divorcee, Wallis Simpson.

Not a royal,
married twice and rumoured to be a flirt, Simpson is deemed unsuitable
to be a wife to the King of England and head of the Church of England.
She is permitted to be a mistress and even a titled one if necessary,
but Edward will have none of that.

George or Bertie, as he is called by family and friends, is crowned king after Edward chooses love over the throne.

Bertie is terribly
embarrassed by his speech impediment and is given to outbursts of
frustrated anger. He has visited every major speech therapist known to
him; and when his wife, Elizabeth — played by the quirky Helena
Bonham-Carter — discovers the unconventional Australian speech
therapist, Dr Lionel Logue, Bertie initially refuses to see him.

However, Logue is
soon able to pierce through George’s icy exterior to unearth relics of
childhood hurt, feelings of inadequacy and anger, especially in
relation to being the spare prince, and a deficient one at that.

Its not all plain
sailing though, playing speech therapist and shrink to a hurting, stiff
upper-lipped monarch, but they stay friendly enough for Logue to get
him through his four-line coronation speech. However, the big task lies
ahead. Britain is on the brink of war following Adolf Hitler’s antics
on the world’s political scene. The insecure king must prove that he is
capable of guiding the affairs of his nation. This requires him to read
a crucial speech informing the people of Britain’s intention to join
forces in checkmating Hitler. But there is still the matter of the
stuttering.

Firth captures the
heart of the audience with his balanced portrayal of Bertie’s strength
and weakness. Here is a member of the royal family, known for being
stoic, stumbling his way through a problem that is both physical and
emotional.

It will not be
surprising to find one’s eyes welling up with tears at certain points
in the movie. Firth draws you into the pain of the character just by
jumbling up a sentence and trying to force the words out of his mouth.
It’s almost agonising to watch.

There are no zany
roles in this flick for the brilliant British actress, Helena
Bonham-Carter. She plays George’s loving and supportive wife, always
cheering him on and fiercely protective of him. One wonders how he
would have turned out without her.

Geoffrey Rush plays
Lionel Logue. And just as Logue is every bit a match for the cranky
Bertie, Rush’s performance is not overshadowed by Firth’s excellent
delivery. Guy Pearce plays the heir, Prince Edward.

‘The King’s Speech’
is almost two hours long. There is no rush to get it over with and
pleasantly, there is no boredom as the drama unfolds. The setting is
England in the mid-20th century and everything adds up to enhance this
plausibility. There is footage from actual occurrences, such as Hitler
giving fiery speeches and Nazi soldiers marching.

Definitely
Oscar-worthy and definitely worth the viewing, ‘The King’s Speech’ gets
an ‘A’ rating, helped largely by Firth’s star delivery.