One of the best routes to an Oscar nomination, and often a win, is playing a British monarch. Colin Firth is a shoo-in to receive his second nod in a row for “The King’s Speech,” in which he smashingly plays the seldom portrayed King George VI, the father of the present Queen Elizabeth.
In much of this superb film, Firth is Prince Albert, second in line to the throne though the ailing George V (Michael Gambon) thinks he would make a better ruler than his eventual successor, the flightly Edward VII (Guy Pearce), best remembered in history for abdicating to marry a twice-divorced American as the Duke of Windsor.
The major stumbling block to Albert’s place in history as Britain’s ruler during World War II is a fearsome speech impediment — he just can’t get words out, a problem in an era where Britain’s rulers are expected to give inspiring radio addresses and not just, as his father remarks, “look good in a uniform.”
Albert’s devoted wife — the future Queen Mother Elizabeth, played by Helena Bonham Carter in a welcome return to classical roles — finds Albert help in the unlikely form of Lionel Logue, a failed actor and dubiously credentialed speech therapist from Australia.
The patient at first resists Logue, who insists on addressing him as “Bertie” rather than “Your majesty” and tells him the lessons won’t work unless he is able to treat Albert, who is now first in line to the throne after his father’s death, as an equal.
Logue is wonderfully played by Geoffrey Rush, a likely Best Supporting Actor nominee who shares co-star billing with Firth as well as serving as one of the producers of “The King’s Speech,” directed with great, Oscar-worthy assurance by Tom Hooper, best known in this country for the HBO miniseries “John Adams.”
But the film, and quite possibly the Oscar, belongs to Firth, who severs his relationship with Logue after the latter impertinently suggests he push his brother off the throne.
When Edward abdicates in the name of love, the newly renamed George V (Albert being too evocative of the family’s German roots) is forced to send for Logue over the strenuous objections of his advisors.
If Firth wins the Oscar, it will be for the climactic scene in which George V announces the U.K.’s entry into World War II in a radio speech — with Logue guiding him through this triumph like a conductor conducting a symphony.
The Weinstein Co. is planning to release “The King’s Speech” the day before Thanksgiving.
