not worth the praise

Rating: 4/10 (1 February 2011)

I really do not get the Hollywood's weakness for everything royal and British. It is enough for a British actor to play an English queen or king to get nominated, it seems. For example Helena Bonham getting nominated here is just ridiculous, she is good of course but nothing deserving an Oscar nomination. The film is well made and acted, but is basically a lie, sentimental and simplistic one at that. King Edward VIII, the older brother here, was a known supporter of Hitler but the film does not mention it here. King George's speech impediment was not really so important, because the king's role was pretty limited at the time and his importance was little compared to prime minister's Churchill in preparing the country for war. Big deal that he was stuttering, he could have been mute and it still would not have changed much! The film also conveniently ignores that king George was NOT Churchill's supporter and thought his politics of clearly opposing Hitler was incorrect, instead he showed strong support for Neville Chamberlain's politics of appeasement, even after Chamberlain had cynically approved in Munich Hitler's invasion of Czechoslovakia! If it were up to king George, Churchill would not have been appointed PM, Halifax would have. And Halifax was just another Chamberlain. So the film is a sentimental lie for naive, sentimental public.