The King's Speech

Suzanne: Why are all the good dramas coming out of the U.K.? We do great action/adventure, but for straight drama, the U.K. has it over us.
First and foremost, it is important to remember that this is a drama, not a documentary. I'm quite certain that liberties have been taken with history in the name of "dramatic license," and perhaps some of them were unnecessary. I don't know enough about the history of the Royal Family to say, but I do know enough not to think that this movie has provided me with that knowledge.
As a drama, however, this is stellar. The performances are uniformly excellent. Colin Firth fully conveys the anguish, shame, and humiliation of the individual forced into a public role for which he is ill-prepared; only a few minutes into the film, I was tense with fear for him and willing him to speak.
Geoffrey Rush is the compassionate, caring, loyal, trustworthy friend we all wish we had and wish that we could be. Helena Bonham Carter is her usual regal self, but I do wish she would stop with the "mad eye rolling;" it was too Mrs. Lovett. The supporting players do just that -- provide the strong support needed for the stars to shine.
The time and place are beautifully and faithfully recreated. Clothing, hairstyles, and attitudes are work together to transport the viewers back in time to a specific era.
However, I do have a few criticisms of certain decisions by the director. While it's quite true that forcing a left-handed child to use the right hand can and does lead to speech defects and other maladies, it is not necessarily true that a person who speech defects suffered an emotionally abusive childhood. The historical record does not suggest that such was the case, and I have to wonder at the motives of the film makers in making this such a focus of the film. While absolute historical accuracy is not required of historical fiction, deliberately distorting the truth about real people is hard to justify, particularly when that distortion promotes a damaging misunderstanding about a human disability.
And now, over to Mike.

Mike: Any film dealing with the British royal family is automatically deeply distressing and repugnant to me. They are scum and they know it. This is a fairy story in many ways because we are asked to accept Colin Firth as King George VI but then since we live in an age of high fantasy and escapism exemplified by the string of Harry Potter inanities I'll go along with it, reluctantly. It's actually rather good because after a while it ceases to be about the royals, in a sense, and becomes a poignant film about perseverance and courage and, sigh, belief. Just the sort of 'empowering' antidote needed at the movies these days. The stand out performance is Geoffrey Rush's, hands down. The rest of the cast, particularly Firth, are veddy veddy good in that stiff upper lip British way. Helena Bonham Carter puts some real feeling and humanity into her role, even if she is asked to play a bloodless reptile. Oh, and a big thanks to Mr Rush. At last, a depiction of a genuine, decent Australian who is not Steve Irwin, or Paul Hogan or any other stereotype you can dream up regarding Australians.