Unaccustomed as I am...

Rating: 9/10 (12 January 2011)

King George VI had a stammer. In the days before broadcast media, this wouldn't have mattered much since kings were rarely heard by more than a small number of their subjects. Once radio, and, later, newsreels with sound and (horrors!) television came on the scene, a monarch's ability to inspire confidence by speaking clearly and authoritatively became paramount.
Step forward, then, Australian speech therapist Lionel Logue, approached by George's wife, the woman we all now know as the Queen Mum. She is desperate, almost ready to give up – George already has – and he is a last resort, but he it is who helps the Duke, who in time becomes King, get a handle on that stammer.
The difference he makes is aptly illustrated here with two speeches at either end of this splendid film. At the beginning, as Prince Albert, Duke of York, "George" has to give a speech to close the 1925 British Empire Exhibition that is an ordeal for him as speaker and for the crowd as listeners. But at the end, after an uneven, even stormy, set of meetings with Logue, he makes a thoroughly creditable job, as King and Emperor, of addressing the Empire now at war with Germany. Hokey to end on a note like that? Perhaps – but, in a film of this quality, who cares?
The film wins hands down on its performances. Colin Firth as Albert/George is mesmerizing; in the scene where he is telling Logue about the death of his afflicted brother, Prince John, I could not have looked away if someone had held a gun to my head and ordered me to.
Colin Firth is, however, merely the first among equals. Geoffrey Rush is nearly as good with a quirky performance as Lionel Logue and Helena Bonham-Carter as Elizabeth, first Duchess of York, then Queen Consort to George VI, is both irritating and excellent. The supporting cast is well up to standard, particularly Michael Gambon who has a minor role as George V; the scene where, with his death looming, that King is too confused to understand what his advisers are telling him is another that stays with the viewer long after it is shown.
Less good are Guy Pearce as a rather forced Edward VIII (his "British" accent is dreadful, but fortunately we don't hear much of it) and Timothy Spall, whose effort at Winston Churchill seems strained at times.
Production values are sound. There isn't much music – appropriate in a film where how one of the characters speaks is the main business of the plot – but what there is is well used. The proceedings, sometimes amusing and sometimes moving, rarely drag. I came out at the end both uplifted and moved.
Rating: 9/10 - a truly excellent piece of work.