Historically very dodgy but an acting tour de force in the lead role

Rating: 9/10 (13 January 2011)

All three lead players (Helena Bonham Carter, Geoffrey Rush and, of course, Colin Firth) are first rate but it is really Firth's film. His acting is just breath-taking and he really makes you feel for and with a figure from history with whom most people would probably not think they have much to share at all.
The historical 'background', though, is very much a 'right on' adaptation / tailored for a British/US 2011 audience and full of errors which a history teacher would spot immediately, e.g. Churchill being 'at the centre of things' in the 1930s right up to the outbreak of war (or even for 'Bertie' and against 'David') - ridiculous; Baldwin feeling he had 'failed' (especially over foreign policy) whereas in fact he retired (rather than resigned) in a glow of popularity for having 'sorted out' the mess of the Abdication - nonsense; the prospect of his saying, in resigning, 'So Winston was right all along' - complete rubbish (as they had in fact been at daggers drawn since 1930) and, overall, it has to be said, the idea that the vast bulk of the UK populace (and especially many in high social and political circles (the true feelings of Bertie and Elizabeth towards Chamberlain are not shown in any real way either)) had any feeling that war with Nazi Germany was inevitable until well into 1938 (and, in fact, early 1939 for very many when, despite his assurances at Munich, Hitler (by now hell-bent on war (although not necessarily with Britain and France)) simply marched into Prague/the remainder of Czechoslovakia without any discussions whatsoever with London or Paris and, in doing so, convinced the vast majority of people that he was a lying scoundrel and someone who was determined to gain his (insane) ambitions no matter what it cost (to other countries and even the German people).