Writer: Syahida Kamarudin

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Watch this if you liked: "My Fair Lady", "The Queen", "A Single Man"

Director Tom Hooper tried to make "The King Speech" as accurate as possible to the actual history, although it does not fail to exaggerate on certain parts (be it in characterizations or scenes) for dramatic effects. The depiction of King Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson, for example, as selfish antagonists rather than who they really were in real life. Certain scenes will remind you of Audrey Hepburn's "My Fair Lady" (1964) while the other of "The Queen" (2006), and if the movie did choose the path to emphasise on Bertie's speech impediment, it might have become a serious version of "My Fair Lady", sans the lady, the musical and the famous black and white dress.

However, the film chooses to go beyond the story of a stuttering prince who became a king, and focuses on the relationship between Bertie and his speech therapist, Lionel. It broadens into the story of his past and personal life, and why he is the stammering person that he is. And instead of a film about a doctor and his 'patient' - it becomes a story of friendship between a commoner and a royalty.

Colin Firth is remarkable as King George VI, and it was reportedly that Queen Elizabeth II herself was touched by his portrayal of her majesty's father. The pairing of Firth and Geoffrey Rush as the witty Australian speech therapist, Lionel Logue as the unlikely friends is interesting. It is also refreshing to see Helena Bonham-Carter playing a 'clean' duchess/queen for a change after playing several lunatic characters prior to that, in the likes of the Red Queen and Bellatrix Lestrange.

Fans of modern European history will love the inside representation of the royalty - especially what went on before King George VI's famous Declaration of War speech on the outbreak of World War II in 1939. The cinematography is stunning and although the movie is predictable from the start, it is without a doubt a finely crafted historical drama that can please the audience.

Or at least the good old British humour might amuse you.


Cinema Online, 07 February 2011