The King's Speech (2010)

What can I say about The King's Speech that hasn't already been said? It is as brilliant and perfect a movie as the reviews and plaudits suggest, and everyone in it, from Colin Firth, Geoffrey Rush and Helena Bonham-Carter to Michael Gambon, Guy Pearce and Timothy Spall are uniformly faultless. 

It's a movie that doesn't feel (Oscar) worthy, it's enjoyable, it's interesting, intriguing and rivetting. It has wit and emotion and heart, but it's not cloying or sentimental. Telling the story of Bertie, son of George V, brother of Edward VIII and then King George VI himself, a prince and then king with a stammering problem in the age of radio. As plots go, there's not much more than overcoming the stammer, but of course there is so much going on - this is a story about real people and actual events that resonated through history. The King's Speech of the title, working on several levels, is George VI's first radio broadcast to the country and the Commonwealth on the outbreak of World War II. As well as taking in the build up to war and the fascinating abdication crisis (as recently featured in Upstairs, Downstairs and Any Human Heart) the movie shows the royal family as human beings, in much the same way as The Queen did.

I cannot think of a single fault with the movie. It held me spellbound throughout. Wonderful.