A hell of a lot more interesting than listening to Meghan and Harry

During one of the free premium channel previews, I recorded The King's Speech, since it did win the Best Picture Oscar and I haven't done too many posts on more recent movies. I recently sat down to watch it and do the review. Granted, this is one that most people are well aware of, so my synopsis might be a bit more brief than normal.

In 1925, Prince Albert (Colin Firth), second son of Britain's King George V, is the Duke of York and given the task of giving a closing speec at a major international exhibition. Unfortunately, Albert suffers from a severe stammer, making the speech a nightmare for all involved. To that end, his wife Elizabeth (Helena Bonham Carter) wants to find a discreet speech therapist to help treat her Bertie's condition. To that end, she finds Lionel Logue (Geoffrey Rush), an Australian-born elocution teacher who has unorthodox teaching methods.

Albert isn't so certain he wants to trust Logue at first, but over the years he keeps coming back to Logue, as circumstances with his family make his life complicated. As Albert is second-born, it's his elder brother Edward (Guy Pearce) who is set to become King when dad George V (Michael Gambon) dies. But Edward is unmarried an in a serious relationship with American Wallis Warfield Simpson who has already been divorced once and is in the process of getting a divorce from her second husband. As the King is the nominal head of the Church of England, the Archbishop of Canterbury (Derek Jacobi) isn't about to countenance a divorcée as Queen Consort (my how times have changed).

So Albert becomes King, taking the name George VI and having to speak ceremonial lines at the investiture ceremony, bringing Logue in for the help. But by this time the Archbishop has learned that Logue has no traditional credentials (the fact that his methods have actually, you know, worked is overlooked) and wants to get rid of Logue.

Finally, there's the stress of the world situation, as war with Germany is approaching. After the Nazi invasion of Poland, Britain declares war, and George VI has to give his first wartime speech, not only over domestic radio but delivered by shortwave to the entire world. Can he do it?

The King's Speech was nominated for a host of Oscars, and won three of the big ones, for Best Picture as well as for Firth and director Tom Hooper. It deserved to win, I think, as the movie is extremely well made with an excellent performance by Firth, and pretty darn good performances by the supporting actors (I haven't mentioned Claire Bloom as George V's wife Queen Mary yet). The production values for recreating the period seemed good as far as I could tell, although I did find the color palette a bit too gray. There were also a few cases of camera movement I found intrusive, but nowhere near as annoying as Darkest Hour. If you haven't seen The King's Speech yet, I strongly recommend it.

The King's Speech is available on DVD, and probably on streaming platforms too.