by Jean Knill

Created on: March 19, 2011

The background of this movie is the period of British history leading up to the time that Albert, the second son of King George V, had to take over the monarchy unexpectedly in December 1936. His older brother had decided to abdicate in order to marry the love of his life, American divorcee, Wallis Simpson. Bertie, as he was known to his family, was to become George VI and lead his country in the second world war against Hitler.

The film, however, dwells not so much on these sensational episodes of history, as on the serious personal challenge that Bertie had to overcome – his stammer. Actor Colin Firth won a well-deserved Golden Globe for his amazing performance of this road to kingship, and at the time of writing, the film has been nominated for 12 Oscars.

The two main characters, Bertie and Lionel Logue, his speech therapist played by Geoffrey Rush, rather eclipse the rest of the cast, even overshadowing Helena Bonham Carter as Duchess of York, wife of Bertie, and later Queen Elizabeth. She was the one who found Lionel and persuaded her husband to try him out, and she is portrayed as a good wife anxious to help her husband to be able to do his duty.

Early in the movie, the audience is treated to the trial for the Duke of giving a speech, on the order of his father, at the closing of the Empire Exhibition in 1925 at Wembley Stadium. His stumbling rendition was painful for him and for everyone who heard it. Towards the end of the film, Lionel discloses that, when he and his family listened to it on the radio, one of his sons asked him, “Could you help that man, Daddy?”

The film moves through the years between that time and the king's speech delivered when war was declared in 1939. It shows the frustrations and triumphs of a man brought up in a family that puts duty before personal happiness, with part of that duty being the public speaking he believes is quite beyond him. It also shows the efforts, disappointments and patience of the speech therapist who helped him to overcome the challenges and become a royal monarch beloved of his people. And it tells the moving story of the friendship that developed between them and endured throughout their lives.

All the other players are necessary to tell the story and put it into context, and the cast is littered with well-known names: Michael Gambon was George V with Claire Bloom as Queen Mary, his wife; Derek Jacobi was the Archbishop of Canterbury; Anthony Andrews, Stanley Baldwin, and Timothy Spall, Winston Churchill. Director Tom Hooper made sure they each contributed minimally and beautifully as a foil to the depth of character of the two main protagonists.

George VI was the father of the current Queen Elizabeth of the United Kingdom, who is the only person in the movie still living, and perhaps the only one who could, but is unlikely to, comment on how near the film comes to the truth. She was played as child by Freya Wilson, with Ramona Marquez as her sister, Princess Margaret.

Sometimes lesser mortals need to be reminded of the humanity of those in the spotlight. However true it is to the lives it portrays, and this appears to have been helped by notes in a diary written by Lionel Logue, this movie does just that. It is also hugely entertaining and reveals some amazing acting talent.

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