Excellent movie that leaves you reflecting on your own battles

Rating: 9/10 (26 March 2011)

A movie about great courage, facing up to one's biggest fear. A fear that may seem irrational and insignificant to others but is an insurmountable mountain to the individual. A debilitating and overpowering enemy that every instinct in your body commands you to avoid at all cost. King George VI again and again is thrust into a situation where he feels forced to do battle with this fear head on. Repeatedly he gives up only later to take up the gauntlet again and ultimately he overcomes; or at least finds a workable modus operandi with his deep rooted fear, that enables him to fulfill his full potential and be a guiding light to his people at a time of great need.
A courageous tale, eminently well played by Colin Firth, where he manages to be at once wooden, withdrawn and distant; yet vulnerable, sympathetic and all together absolutely convincing in the role of the stammering King George VI. Helena Bonham Carter also plays well as a supportive and persistent wife, even if her occasional application of a cold facade towards her husband's brother's fiancée and Lionel Logue's wife come across as inconsistent with the otherwise warm character she portrays. Geoffrey Rush is brilliant as the therapist who knows when to command, also in difficult situations when the king is behaving obstinately, yet shows a depth of vulnerability, humility and vainness when the king gives him a cold shoulder or an aloof amateur theater director works hard at coming up with multiple unlikely justifications for not awarding a role to Lionel. A great movie that will leave you thinking about the trials and tribulations the poor king had to face. Perhaps you will draw parallels to your own life and the particular fears you are either avoiding or facing up to.