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Created Jan 09, 2011 10:34PM PST • Edited Dec 24, 2017 06:47PM PST

1. Quality

2. Summary

   Perfect 5.0

   Who knew? The Brits no doubt, but we Yanks were unaware of the stammering tribulations that the current Queen Elizabeth’s father endured, let alone that England’s fortitude in World War II required him to overcome them. Most impressively, who would have guessed that this true story would make such a brilliant and brilliantly entertaining movie. Smashing!

   Tremendously engrossing, historically significant and frequently funny, The King’s Speech combines nonpareil acting from Colin Firth and Geoffrey Rush with Tom Hooper’s perfect direction and David Seidler’s incisive script. The story of a good man overcoming a psychological disability, with the support of his loving wife, makes this a perfect date movie for grownups, especially those who’ve experienced tribulation in their own family. History buffs – in particular – will find it utter catnip.

   Bring on the Oscars!

4. Acting

   Really Great 4.5

   Colin Firth bridges several paradoxes in his performance. He makes the King of England both highly relatable as a normal man and yet truly royal in bearing and character. He also makes him eloquent and funny, yet verbally constipated much of the time.

   Geoffrey Rush equals Firth by making his character an idiosyncratic pragmatist, unafraid to go where he often had no reasonable chance of success. This makes him a bit of a fool, yet the kind of fool who makes the world a better and more interesting place. Rush captures this odd combination of deeply human characteristics.

   Helena Bonham Carter grounds the movie as Queen Elizabeth (known for most of her life as The Queen Mother), as savvy and loving a wife as any man could desire.

   The rest of the cast is a who’s who of British Commonwealth thespians.

   • Derek Jacobi, once a Roman Senator in Gladiator, here the Archbishop of Canterbury.
   • Michael Gambon (aka, Harry Potter’s Dumbledore) as King George V.
   • Guy Pearce, always dashing, as Prince Edward the Abdicator.
   • Timothy Spall as Winston Churchill. This great character actor so often plays the villain, as in Sweeney Todd. Here he quite successfully essays the inimitable Churchill.

5. Male Stars Perfect 5.0

6. Female Stars Great 4.0

7. Female Costars Great 4.0

8. Male Costars Great 4.0

10. Film

    Perfect 5.0

    Elegant, with a regal stillness and great use of the London fog.

11. Direction Perfect 5.0

12. Play Really Great 4.5

    Deftly juxtaposes the family lives of the royal Windsors and the commoner speech therapist, including the quietly loving support each wife gave to her husband.

13. Music Perfect 5.0

14. Visuals Perfect 5.0
15. Content

16. Edge

    Tame 1.3

17. Sex Innocent 1.2

18. Violence Gentle 1.0

19. Rudeness Salty 1.8

21. Reality

    Glib 1.1

    Historically fascinating from several angles:

    • The newly widespread use of radio turned the royals into performers, whereas they’d previously only had to be figureheads. Wait till TV and the net would rear their heads…
    • The peccadilloes of one royal changed history. To we clueless Yanks, the movie makes clear just how selfish Prince Edward was to abdicate the throne in the face of Hitler’s threat. That said, the movie lets him down easily in regards to his Nazi sympathies.
    • The rise of technocratic elitism, which would come to dominate the modern world, is evidenced in how the speech therapist engages with the King on equal terms. Blue blood elitism would go on to suffer many more such slings and arrows.

22. Circumstantial Glib 1.2

    Impressively true to the actual story, albeit with a few dramatic shortcuts according to Wikipedia.

23. Biological Natural 1.0

24. Physical Natural 1.0