Unoriginal, contrived, self-satisfied junk

Rating: 2/10 (16 September 2013)

The simple, totally bland film that literally revolves around the speech impediment of a historically unimportant royal (why are we supposed to care?) suffocates under its nonstop "crowd-pleasing" clichés. This film is made up of insufferably self-satisfied acting, direction, and writing (you can just imagine all involved patting themselves on the back for being clever). The one-liners are so manufactured and unoriginal that it should have had a laugh track. The whole thing is so uninspiring and devoid of any real emotion, substance, or originality that I'm honestly stunned at the reception it received upon its release.
None of the performances rise above the ingratiating material; in fact, they are accomplices. It tries to lend gravity to the proceedings by sprinkling historical events (the rise of Hitler, the beginning of WWII) throughout in the most amateurish way possible. All in all, it's an unmemorable, pretentious bundle of shallow clichés.