The King Speech Review

DIRECTOR: TOM HOOPER
RELEASED: JANUARY 7th
MOMENTUM PICTURES

One does not usually plump for period dramas. An yet, while those tight corsets and gentile walks along the countryside might have been missing, it was still hard to shake the nagging feeling that The King’s Speech could just turn out to be yet another damp squib. Fortunately, all sense of this was quickly dispelled the moment every mum’s favourite, Colin Firth, snapped profanities with his ferocious tongue quicker than Gordon Ramsey in the kitchen.

Firth plays King George VI, however the film tells not of the tale of King George VI, but rather of the man who would become King and the battle to overcome the dredded stammer that had plagued him for so many years. The story is full of rich and wonderful characters, to which Firth fully exploits providing the kind of performance that could very well bag him that much coveted Oscar. Similarly, Geoffrey Rush and Helena Bonham-Carter also hold their own with some equally impressive comical and understated performances as speech therapist Lionel Logue and Queen Elizabeth respectively.

Tom Hooper (The Damned United) should be incredibly proud of his latest offering, stamping his unique combination of sumptuous visuals and English dry humour to provide an unmissible highlight of 2011.

9/10