Tom Hooper/UK-Australia 2010/110 min

Showing @ Cineworld now

“We’re all in this together” has been the party line this week as the coalition introduce the cuts, and it’s not a surprising one; if you want to convince others to reshape the country in the interests of business, you had better emphasise your commonalities with the masses and not your differences, such as, in the PM’s case, the fact that you yourself are a multi-millionaire and related to that ultimate symbol for elitist privilege and social stratification, the royal family. So it’s not surprising to find that this film about King George VI likewise stresses the character qualities we can sympathise with, namely his stammer and lack of confidence.

The film begins with Prince Albert (Colin Firth) giving his notoriously awkward 1925 speech for the British Empire Exhibition at Wembley, which inspires him to employ the services of the Australian speech therapist Lionel Logue (Geoffrey Rush). What begins as speech therapy ends up skirting closer to psychoanalysis, as Lionel helps ‘Bertie’ to confront his insecurity and step up to the throne.

Screenwriter David Seidler’s script is acutely sensitive to the King’s condition, with Firth, perfectly suited to the role, embodying the sense of constant dread that accompanies it, though Rush perhaps steal the show with his gleeful irreverance. Director Tom Hooper brings the same sensitivity to character and keen eye for period detail that he did with HBO’s John Adams, and it’s an affectionate take on monarchy, treating its subject as human but essentially noble. But with the UK Film Council that helped produce this film having been axed, you have to wonder if films empathising with those at the top end of the social heirarchy are all that healthy right now.