The King's Speech

 I saw the finest movie I have seen all year today.. Yeah, I know it is the only movie I have seen all year but I would venture a guess that it won't be dethroned.  The fact is that it is better than anything I saw in 2010 also.

The King's Speech is about the relationship between the present' queen of England's father and his speech therapist.  King George VI, played by Colin Firth was bullied as a young child. by his father, his brother and his nanny.  He was made to switch his natural left-handedness to his right hand.  All of these things contributed to his stammer.

Sometimes we forget that children are affected by

bulling.  We let it happen.  Often we forget that so-called "royals" are just human beings who happen to have been born into privilege and wealth. They suffer from the same insecurities as the rest of us and in King George's case he was very fortunate.  Very fortunate in his wife Elizabeth played by Helena Bonhham Carter and his soon to be friend Lionel Logue played by Geoffrey Rush.  (Look Ms Carter up by following her link.  I was amazed at how many parts I have seen her play and loved her in.)

The acting was superb, the cinematography perfect, the costuming elegant, the setting exceptional and over all the quality of this film is outstanding.  It has humor and shows a human side to the King that we don't often see.  I would predict with the Awards season coming up this film will pick up many of them.. Perhaps even Best Picture.  Then perhaps they will show it in Ames.

I think I was most taken with the idea of the friendship between the King and the commoner...although he was not a common man.  Friendship is a rare thing.  Kings aren't used to it.  They seldom have a person that will accept them for who they are and in this case teach them.  It was just very well done and I encourage you to go see it.   You will notice that I do not give much of the plot away.  That is because the plot is not important in my estimation. I feel the development of and showcasing of the relationships is the important part of this film.  If you want the plot you can go here to read it.  But I would recommend waiting until after you have seen this excellent film.