no explosions, no bikini clad women, no giant robots, but no competition

Rating: 9/10 (26 January 2011)

Prince Albert, the second son of George V and Duke of York is set to give a speech at the close of the Wembley exhibition, however, due to a debilitating speech impediment, it is an unmitigated disaster. Thus begins the story of his search for someone to help him overcome, what was for him, the worst possible affliction imaginable. After vowing no more, his wife, Elizabeth, seeks out one last man to try and help cure her husband of his stammer, the unconventional, Lionel Logue. After meeting with him, she agrees to get her husband to see him and we see his progress with the therapist during the backdrop of both political upheaval abroad and constitutional upheaval at home.
This is an absolute cracker of a film. Sometimes, in fact let's be honest, very often when films are crazily over-hyped, you do tend to go into them feeling jaded and cynical even before the first scene is over, but in this case, due to the superb performance of Colin Firth, you really feel for Berty, and the journey he takes with Lionel pulls you in from the moment that Geoffrey Rush appears as the scally Australian with a cheeky temperament but a heart of gold, and again, it is stunning work by Rush, who finally after years of having to mess around with the accents of others finally comes home to his own voice. All the supporting cast play their part in making the film as good as it can be, but make no mistakes this is Firth and Rush's film and they turn 2 hours of what could have been tedium into an absolute showstopper of script and performance.
Tom Hooper as director deserves special praise for managing to get not just one but potentially two Oscar winning performances out of his actors and put them onto the screen without any of the direction seeming to get in the way. There aren't any jazzy fancy cuts, or anything to distract from what you're seeing. It's just kept nice and simple and is perfect in tone.
The only downside if their is one, is that I was so tense for the end speech that I almost couldn't enjoy it. But that said, that is a minor beef. The upside being I was so into it, that I wanted to watch it again after it had finished.
An absolute delight.