Once in awhile it is a tragedy that they make a movie R rated..."The King's Speech," is such a movie. It is based on the very severe stutter of the would be King George VI on the brink of WWII. Colin Firth is superb in the part looking regal but masterfully showing the stress and pain of his impediment. Jeffery Rush plays Lionel Louge, the last resort, unorthodox speech therapist. The part was made for Rush. He may have even out shined Firth. Louge's family is a delight to watch. Helna Bonham Carter is perfect as Elizabeth and the royal family life looks idyllic. The whole situation with Bertie's older brother David, who was intended to be King, plays out as his playboy life is revealed and his intention to marry Wallace Simpson prevents that from happening. And for me (Pride and Prejudice aficionado that I am) it was fun to see Mr. Collins from the A&E production have a cameo part. And Jennifer Ehle who was Lizzie as Lional's wife.
So why the R rating? As part of his therapy Linoel is trying to shock Bertie into relaxing and throwing off his internal stress so he has him repeat the "f" word and the "s" word repeatedly. Something about swear words with an English accent--they don't sound quite so bad. It really isn't offensive as you see the therapeutic value. These are situations where the rating system is very flawed--where you can justify seeing a PG 13 movie with promiscuous sex and miss something as worth while and uplifting as this. I do believe personal discretion should play a part in our movie choices.
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