Film Review: “The King’s Speech”

Period piece plays it safe, fails to stand up to the competition

Posted on Jan. 26, 2011, at 10:10 p.m.

“The King’s Speech” is a film specifically designed to win awards. It’s a period drama set in Britain with acclaimed actors and an up-and-coming director telling a story that has the perfect balance of feel-good cheer and triumph over the odds.
It’s the equivalent to a perfectly balanced breakfast, something to appeal to every taste bud and give the proper amount of nutrition. Unfortunately, this type of perfection results in a fairly boring meal.
Colin Firth stars as Prince Albert, a man destined to become the next King of England, who suffers from a rather embarrassing speech impediment. His wife, played by Helena Bonham Carter, enlists the aid of Lionel Logue, played by Geoffrey Rush, an Australian speech therapist who uses some rather peculiar techniques to help Albert overcome his mental and physical roadblocks.
The film is well scripted, acted and produced, but there’s no snap to it. It’s a perfectly non-offensive piece of cinema, something that will be ideal to watch with your grandparents or other relatives, unlike the other awards favorites of 2010 such as “Black Swan” or “The Kids Are All Right.” I feel as though if I were 30 years older, I’d love this film, but as a 20-something, “The King’s Speech” fails to truly satisfy.
And it’s a shame, because the movie really is good. Firth will surely win the Best Actor Oscar with his performance, and Carter takes a time-out from Tim Burton’s films to remind us she can play a real person with an actual arc and sense of dignity. Rush is, as always, a delight. The only real problem with the film is its aesthetic choice. It all feels very cramped, as if it were shot on a micro-budget and set to air on PBS.
I just can’t get past the fact that cinema, as an art form, is beyond this now. I’ll speak more of this when it comes time to analyze the Oscar nominations, but suffice it to say in a year where we get “Black Swan,” “Inception,” “The Social Network” and “True Grit,” it’s readily apparent that high brow cinema isn’t only for the period dramas anymore. “The King’s Speech” feels like a throwback to 1940s sentimentality, and I’m deeply uncomfortable with that.
“The King’s Speech” doesn’t traverse any new ground, but it does give a very good tour. It’s a pleasure, certainly, but by the end of it, nothing new has been discovered. Even a few days after seeing the film, I have a hard time remembering specific details.
It is revealed that Albert’s vocal troubles are psychological, due to upbringing and neglect. If “Good Will Hunting” hadn’t already done the infamous “It’s not your fault” scene, “Speech” would have tried for it. That’s the level of originality on display here.
There’s something to be said for playing to formula well — lord knows “The Fighter” did that recently and played it impeccably — but there’s also something to be said for leaving the dead horse by the side of the road instead of relentlessly trying to wake it up.

Grade: C+

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 26th, 2011, 10:10 pm. You can follow any responses to this article through the RSS feed.