Myrtle Logue is the supportive wife of speech therapist Lionel Logue, who treats the Duke of York (who will eventually accede to the throne).Myrtle, Mrs. Logue, is seen in only a handful of scenes in the dark, basement-level Logue menage consisting of her husband and two teenaged boys, including a dinner scene with the whole family and a short conf...
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Myrtle Logue is the supportive wife of speech therapist Lionel Logue, who treats the Duke of York (who will eventually accede to the throne).Myrtle, Mrs. Logue, is seen in only a handful of scenes in the dark, basement-level Logue menage consisting of her husband and two teenaged boys, including a dinner scene with the whole family and a short confidential discussion with her husband, who's trying to share his unexpected troubles with a patient without revealing the patient's identity even to his wife.Myrtle momentously meets Queen Elizabeth and King George VI themselves in her last scene in the film when Lionel secretly invites the royal couple to tea, in hopes of repairing his relationship with the King, and Myrtle unexpectedly returns early from the diversion Lionel had arranged for her to keep the visit of the King and Queen private. Myrtle's priceless, understated reaction to the meeting is probably the highlight of her role in the movie.But a wonderful scene earlier in the movie, when Lionel is musing after dinner about the trouble he's having with an unidentified patient (the Duke of York, who will eventually become King), rivals even the later tea scene. In this earlier marital interaction at the end of one of Lionel's long days, he complains to his wife that this unnamed patient is very afraid. Myrtle immediately recognizes Lionel's unusual lack of success in treating a patient, saying That's not like you; isn't that why they come to you? Lionel, without directly answering her question, explains almost to himself that this patient could really be great. Myrtle observes perceptively, Maybe he doesn't want to be great; maybe that's what you want. As this wifely wisdom gentles Lionel into realizing that perhaps he pushed his patient a little too far, Myrtle attains the climax of the scene in her closing line with yet another pithy but powerful remark: Apologize; do you both good. Myrtle seems not only perceptive enough to help her husband achieve a breakthrough in his own understanding of himself but also encouraging enough to help him reach out again to the patient he had frightened, even though that action won't prove fruitful at first.Myrtle seems marvelously authentic, surprisingly tolerant of her rather constrained life below ground, and well able to provide emotional support for her underground family. Jennifer Ehle plays Myrtle luminously, bringing to life a character who, in contrast with her dark surroundings, manages to shed light on the movie's central relationship between Lionel and his royal patient in only a very few key lines.
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