The King's Speech

Just came back from a lovely evening at the Leeds International Film Festival. Tonight was the opening night and the selected film was The King's Speech, the much anticipated film of the year. It certainly deserves all the hype, personally it's the best film I've seen in years. I've read reviews of it from the film festivals in Toronto and London, and I just couldn't wait until January to watch it in the cinema, so I took the hour-long journey to Leeds to watch this film. The cast is absolutely stunning - Colin Firth, Geoffrey Rush, Helena Bonham-Carter, Timothy Spall, Jennifer Ehle, Michael Gambon etc etc.

In one particular scene, I was reminded of BBC's 1995 adaptation of Pride and Prejudice. Jennifer Ehle (Elizabeth) plays Lionel Logue's (Geoffrey Rush) wife, Myrtle, who had no idea that her husband's patient was the King (played by Colin Firth, aka Mr. Darcy). Myrtle walks into the dining room and sees Elizabeth (then Queen - not Queen Mother yet) sipping tea. Already shocked, then Logue opens the door and says "erm...I believe you haven't met erm...King George VI". It sort of reminded me of the scene in Pride and Prejudice where Elizabeth walks into Darcy at Pemberley. It's worth mentioning that David Bamber (aka Mr. Collins) made a cameo appearance as a theatre director, who rejected Lionel Logue's audition (Logue was an aspiring but unsuccessful actor, as well as a speech therapist) earlier in the film.

The film will be released in the US later this month, but in the UK we'll have to wait until January, closer to the award ceremonies season. I really hope and I think there's a great chance for Colin Firth, Geoffrey Rush and Helena Bonham-Carter to get nominations and possibly awards!