The King's Speech

The Synopsis
Based on the true story of King George VI's (Colin Firth) journey to the throne, the struggle he had with his longstanding stammer and the damage it had on the Country's faith in him as King. His wife, Queen Elizabeth (Helena Bonham Carter) calls on the help of Lionel Logue (Geoffrey Rush) to coach him in overcoming his stammer.

The Review
Aaah man, I love films where I come out feeling all patriotic and this was one of them! I have never felt more British and proud. I know the royal family get a lot of slack for not seemingly doing...well...anything but I absolutely love them.

There's this little part of me that stays dormant for the majority of my day to day life, this is the 'proud to be British' gene. It's always there but it very rarely takes a dominant position in my life. Previous to this film the main culprits for encouraging it to take over are a: Al Murray or b: anything written by Richard Curtis, with the occasional c: british comedy panel shows. But this film and it's simple 'probably not going to be understood by the Americans' undertone just made me want to jump from my seat and start singing the national anthem at the top of my lungs. Luckily I resisted this urge as it was already kind of sad that on 'Orange Wednesdays' at my local cinema at half eight in the evening, I was looking slightly 'weird freak who no one likes' as I queued for half an hour all on my lonesome.

Anywho, enough about me. The film... Colin Firth was awesome and definitely deserves the awards he's been getting, oscar worthy performance definitely. The film was funny and realistic. Helena Bonham Carter played an amazing portrayal of Queen Elizabeth, balancing the regal uptight behaviour with her complete devotion to her husband perfectly. Geoffrey Rush... perfectly timed one liners throughout and the performance was at his usual stunning level. I was a little confused with his accent as I would not have for one moment assumed he was Australian had they not kept on bringing it up throughout the film. His wife definitely sounded Australian but the scenes with them two again confused me. I couldn't quite understand what kind of relationship they were trying to show. Was it distant? loving? happy? unhappy? All the scenes seemed to sit uneasy with the rest of the film, like the director switched styles of filming specifically for them and it made the flow slightly disjointed.

That aside, I loved it and can definitely see why there is a lot of fuss about it. If you're looking for a realistic representation of our beautifully civil and uptight British ways then this is the film for you. If youre looking for action and plot twists, perhaps hold out for something else. Overall it was funny, powerful, emotional and a perfect way to brush up on your history knowledge if you don't know much about the Royal family at that time. I swear.. no one actually needs to go to history lessons, the films are showing it all for us anyway. (DISCLAIMER: Not all films are as historically accurate as they claim to be, for example, do not rely on Disney's Hercules to teach you about Greek mythology because in spite of what they say, it is certainly NOT the 'Gospel Truth.')

Another four faces from me.