King's Speech, The

I don’t know anything about what it’s like to have a king. Even most countries that have democracy also have some kind of figure head to do the kingly duties. Stupidly, in this country we make our president responsible for dealing with matters of foreign relations and pose for pictures with the girl scouts. Nevertheless, there is something comforting about knowing that your leader has been groomed since his childhood for the epic responsibility that is his charge, as opposed to electing a totally unqualified person who was able to raise enough money to steal the position. But it is also an incredible burden for just one man.

“The King’s Speech” is the story of King George IV, and his struggle to overcome his speech impediment. This movie is utterly compelling for the entirety of the film. It is one of those simple yet hard to achieve character driven stories that is just brilliant. There is no action, no spectacle, and yet the film is immensely moving. The fact is that Colin Firth and Geoffrey Rush are the entire movie. Without them and their outstanding performances there is no movie here. And while Firth may seem a bit too old for the role, especially when you realize that Guy Pearce is supposed to be his older brother, the movie simply would not be anything without him. This movie blew me away. I was not expecting it to be so good, and it is really very good. This is the kind of film that should make up the majority of movies that come out, instead of the special effects behemoths that infest the summer movie season.

You, like me, won’t believe how good a movie with essentially five actors and no action sequences can be. If it’s so simple to make a film like this then there is really no excuse for any of the shitty movies we are exposed to regularly. It just goes to show that production value does not a great film make. So my one request is that I not be made to suffer through another shitty superhero film when it’s cheaper to make brilliant and beautiful films like this. Get on that shit, Hollywood!