Review: The King's Speech
20th January 2011
Share This Article:
4/5
- Article continues below...
- More stories you may like...
- Comic Relief 2019: One Red Nose Day and a Wedding review
- Theatre Review: The Swell Mob @ COLAB Factory
- Little Italy Review: Love, Romance and Pizza. What's not to love?

So begins a regal bromance that sees Bertie first greet Lionel with disdain, then steely reservations, and finally an intimate openness as he realises that the unorthodox therapist can help him master his stalling jaw. Just as their tempestuous relationship is put to the test as things fall apart in both the cabinet and the Royal family, wry and astute wife Elizabeth (brilliantly played by Helen Bonham Carter) offers Bertie a constant source of fortitude with unerring support for her flawed Prince.
For the most part, The King’s Speech is an engrossing and a meticulous recreation of that fraught historical era. To address a few faults: the sharp script is a little too reliant on smug jokes, there is an intolerably lumpy Churchill causing a distraction in each of his scenes, and although the drama is gripping enough throughout, things do feel musty during slower passages.
Although the events emphasised in The King’s Speech are often overlooked during a period where Europe was shredded for a second time, Firth’s impeccable delivery of a man facing down utmost humiliation to fulfil his duty shows George VI’s servitude to be a compelling story in its own right. After all, battling a faltering voice to talk the Commonwealth through a world war must take some balls.
You might also like...
People who read this also read...
TRENDING
TRENDING CHANNELS
CONTRIBUTOR OF THE MONTH