Gary Gunnel on The King's Speech

Since Gary/Xenophon has a very low blog-post to thought ratio (as far as I know he doesn't have any blog posts), I thought I'd take this from facebook.

Start a blog, man!:

"Going into the movie I knew very little about the subject; except that Prince Albert was a stammerer and that he somehow overcame this once he became King following the abdication of Edward VIII.

I thought that the acting was superb; as well as the set design, etc. Apparently there are some historical inaccuracies in the film, but I would argue that most of them fall well within the bounds of artistic license. And of course I love Colin Firth in just about anything he does (see the link below).

For me what I took away from the film was the notion that we humans often tend to view any particular situation we are in as unique to ourselves, and we also generally think of the lives of others as being less troubled than ours. But Albert's predicament - that he stammers, that it is the result of a fair amount of childhood trauma and that he is expected to speak publicly as a member of the royal family and ultimately as King - illustrates for me at least how even those we expect to have "perfect lives" have anything but.

I was also moved by the portrayal of Albert's speech coach Lionel Logue. He stands firm with the monarch and treats him as if he were equal, but also as someone worthy of respect. It is really their friendship - Albert learning to trust another person despite his ever present fears arising from childhood - that wins the day for both of them.

I give it four and a half out of five stars. My only complaint being that I wish that the film had taken Albert past his speech to the nation on the outbreak of WWII.

Bonus - one of my favorite Colin Firth scenes of all time: http://movieclips.com/anyX7-love-actually-movie-jamie-proposes-to-aurelia/"