September 1939. King George VI — stammering, self-doubting, thrust onto the throne by his brother’s abdication — must address his nation on the eve of a world war. To do so, he has enlisted the help of Lionel Logue, an unconventional Australian speech therapist (Geoffrey Rush) whose methods are unorthodox and whose manner is disconcertingly egalitarian.
The film traces their unlikely partnership across the turbulent years of the Abdication Crisis, drawing a portrait of a man wrestling simultaneously with public duty and private terror. Helena Bonham Carter plays Queen Elizabeth (later the Queen Mother) as a warm, steely architect of her husband’s confidence. The film culminates in the electrifying broadcast of 3 September 1939 — a king finding his voice as his nation braces for war.