Chris Barsanti

If you prefer your films about the British royalty to be chipper and full of pluck and tender moments (those stiff upper lips do quiver so rarely but expressively), then this heart-warming effort from Tom Hooper is certainly for you. An Anglophilic dream of a piece, it fits in with a somewhat disquieting trend in modern film where American audiences of the tasteful variety flock to touching stories about the pained inner lives of the pampered aristocracy. Sure, they’re richer than Croesus and have whole battalions of servants and lackeys at their disposal, but deep down, these creatures of comfort suffer. It’s almost as though the revolution never happened…