The King's Speech

Since what I loved most about this film (and I loved it a lot) was the aesthetics, I'm going to include lots and lots of pictures here.


It is such a beautiful film--lots of browns. If I could dress myself and everyone around me just like this, I would.


I am crazy about this couch. I think that I'll make our Little Gidding couch look like this eventually.


I love the speech therapist's face--the long face and big nose.


I even like this wall (especially in front of that couch). You should have seen the windows in the speech therapist's office (I couldn't find any pictures of the windows on the internet.)


Palaces and chandeliers are okay.


Even the tent made to keep the king comfortable is built from gorgeous fabrics.


The wall! The couch! Colin Firth!


This is the best scene in the movie (okay, other than the speech itself): not only are (as Hopkins pointed out) Lizzie and Mr. Darcy back in the same room together (!), but her surprise is delightful! (As is the fact that Lionel is more scared of his mild-mannered wife than he is of the king.)


The wallpaper! The hat! The pearls! The fur! The teapot! Okay, going to cut the gushing now.

Not only is the movie aesthetically absolutely perfect, but it's also a great film about friendship and love. Both the king's wife and his speech therapist are his devoted friends. Lionel's bossy insistence on equality is the only thing that manages to get through the king's fears and stutter. This equality is required for friendship, and friendship is the answer to the bullying and abuse that the king suffered as a child. The queen never gives up in her dedicated, determined support of her husband. The King's Speech honestly treats the difficult, miserable parts of being royalty.

The movie is also very funny. Without the humor, the awkwardness of watching someone stutter would be absolutely painful (I don't know if there's ever been a movie that I walked out of that out of breath--I'd been holding mine for so much of the time). The speech itself is masterfully shot--the viewer moves from being stressed for the king, to aching for the people of England who are going to war, to laughing at the speech therapist who prompts the king to swear under his breath when he gets stuck. The range of emotions elicited by that scene is amazing.


(picture, picture, picture, picture, picture, picture, picture, picture, picture)