What a film should be

Rating: 9/10 (20 January 2011)

[5 Stars] If the basic aim of any film review is to tell the reader whether or not to go and spend their money on a film, let me fulfil that now: go and see this film, because it is almost the very definition of your money's worth. Director Tom Hooper has delivered a witty, engrossing, moving and thrilling film, driven by an excellent script from David Seidler and an exemplary cast, led by two terrific performances from Colin Firth and Geoffrey Rush.
The story of George VI, one of Britain's finest modern monarchs, and his struggle with his stammer has usually been a footnote in the history of the 20th century, swept aside by the tempest and tumult of the Second World War and the defeat of the Nazis. However, this film finds the deeply human story of the man who had been bullied by many crucial figures in his childhood and had developed a stammer, and found himself in the unwanted position of voice of a nation at the time of its greatest trial.
Firth is quite magnificent. Whilst Rush's Lionel Logue (the controversial speech therapist) has many of the best lines and is utterly charming, it is the power of Firth's subtle performance which makes the film so gripping. Far beyond the perfect representation of a stammerer that he delivers, one is with Firth's "Bertie" all the way, delighting in his charming story-telling with his children, and weeping with him as he discloses the surprising harshness of his childhood.
All of this builds and swells, never once dropping pace or losing the audience's interest. The final speech is utterly thrilling and spine-tingling, the perfect climax of a film which has made you laugh, cry and told a quite wonderful and inspiring story.