Friday morning, 9 am, and I shrugged off my other duties (my day job, if you will) and headed off to see OWF's first movie of TIFF 2010:
The King's Speech. The emotionally effective historical drama has received much preempted Oscar buzz for those who make Awards prognostication their profession and there's been a building feeling that the 50 year old
Colin Firth, who missed out last year for his performance in A Single Man, might actually go all the way this time. Also beefing up an impressive list of British thespians are Geoffrey Rush, Guy Pearce, two Knights of the Realm in Sir. Michael Gambon and Sir. Derek Jacobi, the always great Timothy Spall as Winston Churchill (yeah, seriously) and
Helena Bonham Carter, the female of the bunch who many are predicting has the kind of role that could see her be in Awards contention. Directing is
Tom Hooper, the former British T.V. director who made his feature film debut last year with The Damned United... The film begins in 1925 with The Duke of York, later George VI (Colin Firth) giving a memorable speech at the closing ceremony of the British Empire Exhibition at Wembley. The Duke suffers from a terrible stammer and a debilitating fear of public speaking, and the speech is far from successful. Terribly embarrassed, and aware that his royal duties will require him to become a competent speaker, the Duke decides to seek speech therapy and so ends up seeing Geoffrey Rush's eccentric elocutionist, Lionel Logue. The film essentially deals with two largely separate but intertwined stories: Bertie's (as the duke is known to those close to him) therapy sessions with Logue and the relationship between him and his family, in particular his brother David (Guy Pearce) who is the rightful heir to the throne after the death of their father George V (Michael Gambon). Unfortunately David is a little less dutiful than Bertie and is in love with and intending to marry the twice divorced Wallis Simpson, a decision that would force him to step aside and hand the throne to Bertie. As this is a true story and it all really happened over 70 years ago, I'm sure you won't mind me revealing that this is exactly what happens and Bertie indeed becomes King George VI, father of Elizabeth II. The eponymous speech - a famous address given by the monarch to rally the nation and the empire at the beginning of World War II is delivered at the end of the film and is, like the rest of it, done masterfully.
The performances of Firth and Rush as the movie's central characters are both superb, with Firth in particular doing a stunningly convincing job, portraying the king as a man who was both fragile and extremely courageous. Helena Bonham Carter deserves praise for her performance as the Queen consort (better known to us nowadays as The Queen Mother) in what is the only example I can recall of her portraying a relatively normal (or as normal as you can be if you're married to a man who rules half the world) person. Also worthy of note is Timothy Spall's excellent (if brief) appearance as a rather caricatured Winston Churchill. The movie is beautifully shot: the sets and costumes reflect the times (or at least my rose-tinted concept of the times) perfectly and the highest standard of sartorial excellence is adhered to at all times. I particularly like the overcoat that Mr Firth (pop trivia: it was his 50th birthday on the day I watched this movie) wears, and he and Mr Pearce look very dapper in evening dress. Why don't we wear white tie anymore? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYYOFBT1SZE At times touching and at times extremely amusing, the film always maintains the right balance between the two and never descends into farce or melodrama, as could so easily happen with such a premise in the hands of a less skillful team. Indeed it is to the great credit of the filmmakers that the relationship between Bertie and Logue, which, at its core is fairly standard fish-out-of-water stuff, never feels clichéd. Although it's the first film in our coverage of TIFF 2010, I wouldn't be at all surprised if it turns out to be the best, and I'll be very surprised if Colin Firth doesn't (deservedly) win the best actor Oscar for his performance.
The King's Speech is released in the U.S. on November 26th and in the U.K. on January 7th.