Great film

Rating: 9/10 (17 March 2016)

This film opens with the struggles and misfortunes of the Prince Albert, the Duke of York, portrayed by Colin Firth. A man held to super human standards by a society, plagued with an overwhelming stammer in the dawn of the broadcasting age. After unsuccessfully receiving extensive treatment from countless esteemed physicians, Prince Albert reluctantly ends up in the care of an unorthodox Australian speech therapist, Lionel Logue (Geoffrey Rush). With Logue by his side, Prince Albert is able to uncover the deep seeded emotional roots of his problem and learns to speak fluidly, an important skill for the newly crowned King George VI.
Throughout the entirety of this picture, the emotional theme of overcoming self-doubt and past traumas is seen within every scene. Midway through the film, the audience learns that the king's stammer is truly a physiological problem, stemming from cruel childhood abuse from a terrible nanny. This physical abuse coupled with the pressure to meet the extreme standards of a young Prince of England leads to the creation of his stammer as a coping mechanism.
The ups and downs of the king's inner battle are clearly illustrated, giving the movie a bit of a gritty underdog story feeling, like that seen in Rocky, in an ultra-refined royal way. This combination of the struggle to overcome extreme odds and an intimate look inside the lives royal family creates a very unique viewing experience, like nothing before. This unique mood is largely created through Danny Cohen's excellent cinematography. The training montage is the scene which best illustrates the slightly ironic tone of the film. This scene utilizes many different directors' perspective angles, along with a quickened cutting speed and numerous other cinematic techniques to show the true originality of the relationship between the king and Lionel. Another key cinematic technique tactfully employed in this film is low upward tilted camera angles, used to create a feeling of fear and self-consciousness. While the opposite angle, high downward tilted angles, are used in later scene to show pride and confidence. This technique is a subtle way of highlighting the theme of overcoming inner conflicts. This historical drama creates a first person glimpse into the life of a disadvantaged man, abruptly thrown into a desperate situation to overcome his lifelong ailment, to take the weight of the British Empire off of his irresponsible brother's shoulders and place it amongst his own.