Unusual yet beautiful biopic

Rating: 7/10 (9 January 2011)

I've been eagerly awaiting this film ever since I'd heard of the project several months back. It certainly does not disappoint, with its host of the creme de la creme of acting talent.
Colin Firth is a superb Bertie and his power to captivate and move the audience is unparallelled. Helena Bonham Carter as the formidable Queen Mother is delightful and commanding. Geoffrey Rushe as the controversial Lionel Logue is as respectable as he is charming. Timothy Spall is an uncanny Churchill (the best yet, I thought) and Michael Gambon seemed to have merged seamlessly with George V.
The film cannot be called a period drama since it shows next to nothing of the typical social conditions and cultural sophistication that such films have invariably shown. Rather, the film focuses solely on the relationship between the future George VI and Lionel Logue, and the difficulties each man had with overcoming their own barriers to each other in order to form an effective tour de force against all their doubters.
It is not something that will sweep the viewer off their feet from the word go and the humour will not be to everyone's taste, subtle and quintessentially British as it is. It requires patient expectation and observation and where these are guaranteed, it quite simply surpasses expectations.
The only criticism I will level against it is the fastidiousness with which the Royal Family's attitudes are treated. Every royal seems to be dead against Hitler from the start when attitudes were a lot more coloured and a lot less steady in reality. Those in the wrong are always in the wrong and the heroes are always deserving of their pedestals.
But this does not detract from the fact that every award this film will receive and has already received, it is more than deserving of.