The King's Speech

Whoever said a big budget is necessary to make a good movie is obviously wrong. 

Whoever said having as central theme a profound and complex existencial problem is necessary to be awarded an Oscar does not know what he is talking about.

Whoever said you need an all-star lineup in order to impress the audience and also make sure the interpretations are well done is sorely incorrect.

The King's Speech is proof of all that. No bulking budget, no deeper than deep human condition based plot, and no major names in the cast of actors with the exception of Geoffrey Rush ( Colin Firth was partially unknown and Helena Bonham Carter's most popular role was that she played as a a witch in the Harry Potter series).

The story, based entirely on real life, goes like this: after the major trauma that the World War I meant to everyone Europe was moving to an even worse event. In England, George V occupied his throne feeling that darker times were approaching. His two sons were perhaps unprepared for what was coming, especially the second one, Albert who was a rather insecure man and whose discomfort was mostly expressed by a stuttering problem that he had not been able to overcome. His wife, Elizabeth, the current queen of England's mother, convinces her husband to look for help. They go to Lionel Logue (Geoffrey Rush), a speech therapist. In the meantime, George V dies and David, his older son, becomes king but later he abdicates to marry an American woman, Mrs. Wallis Simpson. Thus, Albert  is made king as George VI. As a king he will see his country facing perhaps its greatest threat ever because in 1939 the Nazi government and the British empire are officially at war. George VI now has to deliver a speech to his country and his people, perhaps the most important speech in his life. George VI calls Logue to his help, but even so the king keeps wondering if he is ready or not.

As you can see nothing extraordinary, but that's the magic of this movie: it takes this apparently brief moment in History and leaves us with the portrait of an insecure man who was also an important player in the destiny of his nation and lets us know how he faced his traumas to become the man he was supposed to be.

It is not a great movie by itself. I would say the best is in the entire cast of actors with, of course, Colin Firth on top for his more than brilliant performance. Bonham Carter as the king's devote wife and Rush as the irreverent therapist are simply marvelous, but still a bit overshadowed by Firth's exceptional performance. For those who go crazy about History and those who long to understand it, the recreation of that time and its problems is almost flawless and you actually feel transported to the England of that time.

Four stars out of five for this one.