Since I picked such a bad movie to watch last week, it was decided that my lovely wife would get to pick this week's attraction. While The King's Speech would not have been my first pick, it turns out I married quite an intelligent woman.

I have mentioned before that movies from England before 2000, westerns, and foreign films are all about the same to me. I usually have a real hard time following the dialogue because, let's face it, it's a different language. The King's Speech certainly had it's fair share of "old english" but even an uneducated schmuck like myself was able to follow along.

The film is based on the true story of King George VI and his speech impediment that comes to the attention of the world as he takes the throne from his brother who steps down from the title. Colin Firth does a great job in portraying His Majesty, but I truly think that Geoffrey Rush's role as speech therapist, Lionel Logue, stole the show.He will face long odds (and rightly so) in defeating Christian Bale for his role in The Fighter, but Rush absolutely deserves every nomination and potential award he receives.

The movie nerd inside of me really liked some of the shots that Tom Hooper used in this film. I was very surprised to read that the budget for this film was only $15 million. Maybe it is just a lack of intelligence (maybe?), but some of the grandiose sets that are used throughout the filming look like they should have cost quite a bit of money. I guess that is a round about way to give my compliments to the set designers.

Hopefully it won't take a smart woman to convince you to go see The King's Speech, it is well worth the 2 hours.


The King's Speech
Directed by: Tom Hooper
Written by: David Seidler
Starring: Colin Firth, Geoffrey Rush, and Helena Bonham Carter
My Rating: 3.75 out of 5
Would Gene Pick it?: Yes