The King's Speech
Weinstein Company, The | Release Date: November 26, 2010 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
88
METASCORE
Universal acclaim based on 41 Critic Reviews
Positive:
39
Mixed:
2
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Portland OregonianShawn LevyDec 24, 2010
It's a fine, absorbing work, built with brilliance and without excessive showiness or flash. It feels, in fact, like a classic virtually upon its arrival. Read full review
100
Miami HeraldConnie OgleDec 24, 2010
Tom Hooper's terrific, Oscar-worthy film is not merely a spot-on period piece; it's also a heartfelt study in the shadings of courage, a film about duty and friendship that's often warmly funny and sometimes painful to watch. Read full review
100
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallDec 22, 2010
Like Bertie's struggle, there's so much wonderment to articulate about this film that being mistaken for a stammering idiot is a risk. See it, then say it for yourself: The King's Speech is the best movie of 2010. Read full review
100
Orlando SentinelRoger MooreDec 22, 2010
Engrossing and moving story of a alternately warm and combative relationship. Read full review
100
Philadelphia InquirerCarrie RickeyDec 16, 2010
Under Hooper's deft direction, it packs the suspense of a thriller. Read full review
100
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertDec 15, 2010
What we have here is a superior historical drama and a powerful personal one. Read full review
100
New York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierDec 11, 2010
Despite being about a royal family at a critical moment in history, The King's Speech doesn't shout about its many strengths. Rather, it urges you to lean in close, where its intelligence and heart come through loud and clear. Read full review
100
ObserverRex ReedDec 11, 2010
As the actor of the year in the film of the year, I can't think of enough adjectives to praise Firth properly. The King's Speech has left me speechless. Read full review
100
New York PostLou LumenickDec 11, 2010
Old-school filmmaking at its best. Read full review
100
Boxoffice MagazinePete HammondDec 11, 2010
The King's Speech is a magnificent movie treat, one of the very best pictures of the year. Read full review
100
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerDec 11, 2010
A remarkable movie about a remarkable friendship. It honors the audience's intelligence, which makes it a double rarity. Read full review
100
EmpireIan NathanDec 11, 2010
Think the blazing joys of "Chariots Of Fire" where the race is to the end of a sentence. Can it be that the British are coming? Read full review
100
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternDec 11, 2010
No screen portrait of a king has ever been more stirring-heartbreaking at first, then stirring. That's partly due to the screenplay, which contains two of the best-written roles in recent memory, and to Mr. Hooper's superb direction. Read full review
100
NPRBob MondelloDec 11, 2010
It's the relationship between the two men that makes the film work: Geoffrey Rush's teacher cracking the quip, and Colin Firth so persuasive as the panicky king that by the time he gets to his crucial speech about going to war, you'll be panicking right along with him. Read full review
100
San Francisco ChronicleAmy BiancolliDec 11, 2010
The King's Speech is a warm, wise film - the best period movie of the year and one of the year's best movies. Read full review
100
USA TodayClaudia PuigDec 7, 2010
Let's say it without equivocation: Colin Firth deserves an Oscar for his lead role in The King's Speech as the stammering King George VI. Read full review
95
MovielineStephanie ZacharekDec 11, 2010
A direct and heartfelt piece of work. It's conventional, maybe, in its sense of filmmaking decorum, but extraordinary in the way it cuts to the core of human frustration and feelings of inadequacy, reminding us how universal those feelings are. Read full review
90
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzDec 17, 2010
A host of British acting royalty, meanwhile, roams around the film: Derek Jacobi as the Archbishop of Canterbury, Claire Bloom as Queen Mary, Timothy Spall as Winston Churchill and so on. Read full review
90
SalonAndrew O'HehirDec 11, 2010
It's a warm, richly funny and highly enjoyable human story that takes an intriguing sideways glance at a crucial period in 20th-century history. Read full review
89
Austin ChronicleMarc SavlovDec 24, 2010
It's a "keep calm, carry on" wartime melodrama of the first order, and stiff though it may be, it is never less than brilliantly done. Read full review
88
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottDec 24, 2010
One of the chief reasons that director Tom Hooper's richly produced film works so well is because it operates on so many different levels. The King's Speech is all about layers, and Hooper keeps it humming on several at once. Read full review
88
Charlotte ObserverLawrence ToppmanDec 24, 2010
Polished, thoughtful and touching. Read full review
88
St. Louis Post-DispatchJoe WilliamsDec 24, 2010
The King's Speech is the epitome of prestige cinema, an impeccably crafted and emotionally compelling drama that deserves the many laurels it surely will receive. Read full review
88
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliDec 19, 2010
Delivers solid drama with a rousing climax - a fully satisfying and uplifting period piece that achieves its dramatic potential without sacrificing historical accuracy. Read full review
88
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsDec 17, 2010
The actors, predictably, are superb in roles shaped by screenwriter David Seidler, and directed by Tom Hooper. Yet they are unpredictably superb as well. Read full review
88
Washington PostAnn HornadayDec 16, 2010
It's the kind of absorbing, attractive, unfailingly tasteful enterprise that a critic can recommend without caveat. Read full review
88
Rolling StonePeter TraversDec 11, 2010
Two men alone create an epic landscape of feeling in one of the very best movies of the year. Read full review
88
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Rick GroenDec 11, 2010
Yes, The King's Speech is a lively burst of populist rhetoric, superbly performed and guaranteed to please even discriminating crowds. Read full review
83
The A.V. ClubTasha RobinsonDec 11, 2010
The King's Speech is admirably free of easy answers and simple, happy endings; it's a skewed, awards-ready version of history, but one polished to a fine, satisfying shine. Read full review
83
Entertainment WeeklyLisa SchwarzbaumDec 11, 2010
Lest the audience miss a cue, Hooper and soundtrack composer Alexandre Desplat count on the ringing grandeur of Beethoven's Seventh Symphony - the famous second movement, no less - to amp the emotions. Read full review
80
VarietyPeter DebrugeDec 11, 2010
While far from easy, both roles provide a delightful opportunity for Firth and Rush to poke a bit of fun at their profession. Read full review
80
Village VoiceJ. HobermanDec 11, 2010
A well-wrought, enjoyably amusing inspirational drama that successfully humanizes, even as it pokes fun at, the House of Windsor. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesKenneth TuranDec 11, 2010
The gift of The King's Speech is that it allows us to look on as a pair of masterful actors re-create a monumental test of wills. Read full review
80
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinDec 11, 2010
It's a prizewinning combination, terribly English and totally Hollywood, and Firth is, once more, uncanny: He evokes, in mid-stammer, existential dread. Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterKirk HoneycuttDec 11, 2010
It perhaps started with "The Queen," continued with "Young Victoria" and now achieves the most intimate glimpse inside the royal camp to date with The King's Speech. Read full review
80
The New YorkerAnthony LaneDec 11, 2010
The barbs of wit, delivered throughout, are like the retractable daggers used in stage productions of "Macbeth" or "Julius Caesar": they gleam enticingly, they plunge home to the hilt, but they leave no trace of a wound. Read full review
70
Chicago ReaderJ.R. JonesDec 16, 2010
The two leads keep the movie afloat with their light-footed class warfare. This Anglican buddy romance is buoyed by a spicy history lesson about the scandalous marriage of the duke's elder brother, Edward VIII, to the twice-divorced Wallis Simpson. Read full review
70
The New York TimesManohla DargisDec 11, 2010
That film does have its attractions, notably in its two solid leads and standout support from Mr. Pearce. Read full review
63
Boston GlobeTy BurrDec 16, 2010
The movie isn't badly done, just overdone - a cozy art-house crowd-pleaser coasting on the expectations of its genre. Read full review
60
Time OutJoshua RothkopfDec 11, 2010
Firth is exceptional in letting us into his dissolving pride. Read full review
60
TimeRichard CorlissDec 11, 2010
Obvious, though, is the word for Hopper's direction. It amplifies to rock-concert level every pained plosive in Bertie's speech, forces certain characters dangerously close to caricature. Read full review
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