The King's Speech

The King's Speech tells the story of King George VI's struggle with his stammer and how he became king (he's Queen Elizabeth II's dad). The movie is clearly a Best Picture nominee and Colin Firth is strongly favored to win Best Actor. Firth was a strong contender for last year's A Single Man, and I think he'll win this year. The acting from the other leads, Helena Bonham Carter, the King's wife and Geoffrey Rush as his Australian speech therapist, is also suburb. It's good to know Bonham Carter can really act. As of late she's played the villainous Bellatrix Lestrange in Harry Potter and various characters in Tim Burton films. She's great in those roles, but its great to see her in a ground role, portraying a real person.

The score is excellent, and I hear its eligible for a Best Score Oscar (several scores, the Fighter, True Grit, Black Swan have been deemed ineligible). At a almost 2 hour run time, the dialogue heavy piece clips right along. I love period pieces done well, the history lessons like this are among my favorite at Oscar time (see also, The Queen, Young Victoria).