Out now on dvd/blu-ray
The People's Reviews
Rating:
31 ratings
Great story, excellent acting
It's sometimes hard to remember that royalty are at the bottom line human like the rest of us. 'Bertie', later to be King George VI found himself facing a responsibility that was never meant to be his at a time his country needed him and to cap it all off, he had a speech impediment in a position where he was required to make public speeches.As this movie shows, sometimes the hardest battles are the ones for which there are no medals awarded.
The film does jump forward in time without always making that clear. We start with Bertie giving a speech in 1927 and shortly afterwards see him with princesses Margaret and Elisabeth aged about ten. So that scene would have to be in the mid 1930's. Most time jumps are handled better, but that one stumped me as Elizabeth was born in 1926, so obviously not ten in 1927. Perhaps I blinked and missed something, but there didn't seen to be anything to tell us it was now about 1935.
It is easy to imagine that the royal family as we know it was always meant to be. However, Queen Elisabeth would never have been queen without the events shown in this film. Queen Elisabeth was a bit like like Princess Beatrice, not really in line to the throne. Only the abdication changed that.
Bertie is advised by doctors and even some speech therapists to smoke to calm his nerves and help his voice. Bertie died of lung cancer in 1952, so that wasn't very good advice was it!
-
comment / reply