Words don't come easy

Rating: 6/10 (7 September 2018)

The King's Speech was a low budget British film that became a box office behemoth and won the Best Picture Oscar.
It is a tale of Bertie, the younger son of the monarch who tries to overcome his stammer which might be rooted on his upbringing in a severe household. When his older brother abdicated from the throne, Bertie is elevated as King George VI and needs to speak to his subjects as war with Germany is approaching.
The King's Speech is almost a theatrical tale opened up for the cinema. Despite director Tom Hooper using green screen for some exterior shots, making creative use of art & set direction, this is a small scale film with big stars who give big performances ranging from Colin Firth, Geoffrey Rush, Helena Bonham Carter and Guy Pearce.
Ultimately the film concentrates on the developing friendship between two men, Bertie and his unconventional speech therapist Lionel Logue, who looks at the psychological basis as to why Bertie had the stammer in the first place.
However I did find the film a little too sedate, stuffy and not all that interesting. The comedy sometimes felt forced as Logue uses foul language to make Bertie lose his stammer.