Shining a light on the monarchy

Rating: 9/10 (11 January 2011)

George VI's stammer seems like an unpromising subject for a film treatment, but what a highly polished gem this small-budget movie is. Like THE QUEEN, it gets off to an unpromising start. Just as Helen Mirren took a while to get used to as Elizabeth II, so Helena Bonham-Carter doesn't look much like a younger version of Elizabeth's namesake and brown-toothed old mum (a National Treasure, of course!). Michael Gambon looks a bit like George V and Timothy Spall makes a nice jowly growly Churchill, but Colin Firth and Guy Pearce are nothing like the royal brothers George (Bertie) and Edward (David, later Duke of Windsor). Anthony Andrews (who once played Edward VIII in a dire mini-series) seems out of his depth as Mr Baldwin, but there's an excellent Chamberlain and Eve Best makes the best Wallis Simpson since Who-was-she? in the Edward Fox TV version of The Abdication which set the gold standard. Claire Bloom and Derek Jaconi contribute fine cameos as Queen Mary and Archbishop Cosmo Lang, representing the 'Old Guard'.
What matters, of course, is not how good they look but how well they play, and they play very well indeed. Much like Mirren in THE QUEEN (again), Firth and Bonham-Carter inhabit the roles and convince you that this must be how the Prince's/King's impediment was overcome. Lionel Logue, the rough-diamond Aussie voice coach, is a gift of a part, and Geoffrey Rush attacks it full-on. He must be a shoo-in for every award going; Firth and Bonham-Carter are pretty certain to get BAFTAs, but the Oscars are sometimes more whimsically awarded.
The actual Abdication (and the 'woman I love' speech) have been done too often and this version adds nothing new, but there's a nice moment when Elizabeth snubs Wallis at a gaudy party. If I have a quibble with the writing, it's over Logue's insolent insistence on calling his pupil 'Bertie'. Even if this was the case, it doesn't ring true; I can't see how calling him 'Sir' would have reduced the effectiveness of the regimen. Some of the treatments make for jolly viewing - singing and swinging arms and shouting F-words (Elizabeth sitting on Bertie's tum may be far-fetched, but it makes for a charming scene) - and when he is put to the test on the BBC, you positively ache for it to go well.
Comparisons with THE QUEEN are hard to avoid. Both films shine a light into corners of the palaces we don't normally see, but it's done tastefully and tactfully. Our heritage - the Monarchy itself - is in no way diminished. The Queen Mum comes out of it particularly well. Plaudits to all concerned.