Heart-warming and touching, with a chilly undercurrent

Rating: 10/10 (30 December 2010)

Only released at the very end of 2010, I have no hesitation to call this the best movie of this year, and Colin Firth the very best actor in current big-budget cinema.
The movie starts with an opening scene where B-b-b-bertie (Firth) steps up to a microphone to speak to a thousand strong audience at a race- course, and needs several minutes to pronounce the first sentence.
From this moment on, the movie had me in its grasp! I was suffering through Bertie's weak moments, understood his frustrations, laughed with him when he made fun of himself, and cried with him when things went wrong once again. This movie almost left me emotionally burned out, I had to fight tears so much... Helena Bonham Carter as the ever- encouraging wife (Queen Mom) is a fantastic background figure, and Guy Pearce sheds a somewhat new light on Prince Edward's relationship with a commoner. Just as good as Colin Firth is Geoffrey Rush, and I'm not even one of his fans. His role as Bertie's speech therapist has just the right mix of humour, sternness, wisdom, and sheer compassion that makes you just want to hug this guy for his perseverance.
The movie's plot is about the future King George VI overcoming his stuttering speech impediment, but it is also about a man who realises that he needs to step up to a massive challenge in a time where horrible things are about to happen.
Being German by birth, I have to say that the way Bertie faced Hitler in this movie (he sees him as a very powerful orator, compared to his stutter) gave me a new insight into what it must have been like to lead a country's soul in a conflict as terrible as the Second World War.
I am very picky with my movies, but this one will go into my Top 5 all- time favourites: the acting is incredible, the shots are perfect, the script is extremely powerful, and everything else is just about as good as you could ever make it. If you miss this movie, you will miss out on something that will not only get plenty of Oscars, but also a piece that critiques will use as a measure for years to come.