The King's Speech
Dir: Tom Hooper
2010
***
I'm not sure The king's Speech deserved the Oscar if I'm being honest, at least not compared to some of the other nominees (and some films well off the Oscar radar). I'm not at all surprised it did win and to be honest but I'm not particularly outraged that it did. All the hype aside, it is a well told film. Tom Hooper is a really good director with a great eye for detail and is a great story teller too. The Damned United proved his skill, The King's Speech is hopefully a sign of what's to come. The performances are really good too, Firth's performance was as good as any for 2010, Rush is always good and not least here but poor old Helena Bonham Carter, the biggest Oscar snub of the year in my opinion (although Melissa Leo was quite good). The casting of Guy Pearce was quite a surprise too, not that he isn't a great actor, he just isn't the most obvious first choice to play King Edward VIII. The jury is out on Timothy Spall as Winston Churchill, I like him but I didn't find it particularly convincing. All in all, a fantastic film, Oscar-wise, maybe third best film nominated behind Black Swan and Biutiful (which should have won in my opinion).