Well, the Best Actor statuette is Colin Firth's to lose at this point. Considering that the Weinstein Brothers are behind this film, I don't think it will lose any publicity wars in the days up to the ceremony. I hope he gets it. I understand why he lost to Jeff Bridges last year (Jeff did a fantastic job with a much showier role in Crazy Heart versus Colin Firth in A Single Man), but this year - I hope - is Colin's year.
This is the story of Queen Elizabeth's father, King George VI, who succeeded to the throne after his brother, King Edward VIII, abdicated to marry Wallis Simpson. King George, known as Bertie to his family, had a terrible stutter. One of the great points of the movie is when you learn of the many likely reasons for the stutter in a non-mawkish scene. Bertie takes the throne as England is moving into WWII, and he needs to address the country on the radio - frequently. He has tried many speech coaches, with horrible results, until he meets Lionel Logue, played by Geoffrey Rush.
The movie does tend to be a little too sweet, mainly around Geoffrey Rush's performance. But I will forgive it a lot, for this is a fascinating story with great performances directed in a far above average manner. The director is Tom Hooper, and he is not all that experienced. He did Longford (with Jim Broadbent and Samantha Morton - a TV movie I reviewed somewhere in here), several episodes of John Adams, and The Damn United. I can hardly wait to see what he does next.
No comments:
Post a Comment