The King's Speech

This is the true story of the Duke of York, also the current Queen Elizabeth II's father, Albert (Colin Firth, A Single Man; Love Actually), or Bertie as his family calls him.  In 1930s England, Albert has an important job where public speaking is a huge part of his career.  The only problem is he has a stammer, causing him to stutter a lot when speaking, publicly or privately.  After trying many doctors to cure him, his wife, Elizabeth (Helena Bonham Carter aka Mrs. Tim Burton; in every one of his films and other films such as Fight Club and Harry Potter) takes it upon herself to find him a speech therapist.  She finds Lionel Logue (Geoffrey Rush; Pirate of the Caribbean, Shakespeare in Love) who, even though she's told has unorthodox ways of teaching, decides he's the best man to cure her husband.  Logue tries a method of putting headphones on the Duke and having him listen to music as he recites Shakespeare.  After listening to himself not stammer, Duke Albert decides to continue with Logue's services.  Soon after his father, King George V (Michael Gambon; Also of Harry Potter fame) dies, Albert's older brother David becomes King Edward VIII (Guy Pearce; The Hurt Locker, Momento, and way to young to play Firth's older brother).  That doesn't last long, however, because King Edward VIII wants to marry Wallis Simpson (Eve Best; Nurse Jackie) who is a twice divorced woman.  The Church of England does not recognize divorce and will not allow the King to be married to her because the King heads the Church.  Because of his love for Mrs. Simpson, David steps down making way for his brother Albert.  Albert becomes King George VI causing him to want to work harder to correct his stammer.  Upon his coronation at the Church of England, Archbishop Cosmo Lang (Derek Jacobi; The Golden Compass, Gladiator) finds out the King's speech therapist isn't a doctor and never had any real training for his career.  Logue states that Bertie was the one who gave him the name Dr. Logue when he had rather be called Lionel.  He also states that the name on his door doesn't say Dr or have any letters after it.  Bertie continues with Lionel's services.  In 1939, Lionel helps King George VI through his first war speech that totals 9 minutes and must be announced across the world via radio, and is there throughout the rest of his war speeches.
The King's Speech has the most Oscar nominations, ringing in a total of 12 noms.  Two more than Coen brother's True Grit, and not surprisingly Inception and the Social Network are tied with 8 noms.  This is the third highest nomination, making the highest 1997's Titantic and 1950s All About Eve with 14 nominations.  Now here's the part where I go over the nominations. (1) It's nominated for Best Picture, and has a pretty good chance of winning, but it's going to be really close with True Grit. (2) Art Direction.  Well its up against Alice in Wonderland, Harry Potter, and Inception, which were all pretty artsy (or so I guess since I didn't see the first 2) so it's chances aren't very good. (3) Cinematography.  I didn't like it too much.  Logue's room where he met with his patients bothered me, and that first scene when Bertie and Lionel meet, I know the DP was trying to be creative with the space between the wall and Colin Firth, but to me it was just annoying, besides if Inception is going to win any Oscars, it better be for Cinematography.  (4) Costume Design.  I thought the costumes were beautiful and really showed the time period well, but this is up against Alice in Wonderland, and Tim Burton always gets creative with costumes and makeup.  You don't have to see a Tim Burton film to know what I'm talking about because it's pretty much the same for all.  I haven't seen any TIm Burton film since he started putting Johnny Depp in all of them (who scares me) but I have seen previews and pictures and it will be hard to beat.  (5) Best Directing.  Tom Hopper directed the King's Speech and he's done mostly TV series.  He's had 15 nominations ever, and the only film's that got nominated were the King's Speech and Red Dust, but he's had one Emmy win and several TV series of his have been nominated.  He's up against Darren Aronofsky who's won 19 out of 32 nominations ever, mostly for Best Director; David O. Russell who's been nominated for an award 12 times, but only won best director twice (for Three Kings and The Fighter) he's mostly won for Best Screenplay, David Fincher who's won 15 awards for Best Director, mostly for the Social Network, and Joel and Ethan Coen who pretty much win every award. (6) Film Editing.  It was nothing spectacular.  Everything flowed together perfectly but of course you can't release a movie with crappy editing. (7) Music Original Score.  I don't really remember the music so it couldn't have been that amazing.  (8) Sound Mixing.  Again, I think it has a chance of winning a lot, but Inception had really good sound and cinematography so I think it's going to have a hard time going up against that, but I could be wrong.  (9) Best Performance by Actor in a Leading Role (Colin Firth) I honestly believe Colin Firth is going to win this.  He did an incredible job and played a really convincing King George VI.  I think the role took a lot out of him, and he deserves to win it.  He did fantastic.  Fantastic!  (10) Best Performance by Actor in a Supporting Role (Geoffrey Rush).  Now Rush did a good job too, he was funny, it was nice.  He has a good chance of winning, but I have this feeling that Christian Bale's going to take home the Oscar for The Fighter.  Geoffrey Rush was good, but Christian Bale was better, and he had a harder role.  (11) Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role (Helena Bonham Carter) Again, this one's going to the Fighter.  I don't feel like Helena Bonham Carter's role was big enough to win Best Supporting Actress, I don't think it challenged her enough.  Melissa Leo's getting that one.  (12) Finally, Best Writing (Original Screenplay) I thought the writing was good.  I mean, the stuff that happened, you can't make up because it was based on a true story, but the writer (David Seidler; Quest for Camelot, The King and I ) did a really good job of writing the screenplay.  Most of Seidler's nominations came from The King's Speech, and I think he's got a good chance of winning this.  He did a good job of bringing the story back and portraying it on the big screen.  He made it easier for me to understand what was going on.  And back to Colin Firth's acting, I hope he gets the Oscar because he was so believable he almost had me in tears at times.  I felt bad for him.
So The King's Speech, the most Oscar nominations this year, and it's worth the money to see it.  I only paid 6 bucks but I was very satisfied.  I highly recommend it, there's never a dull moment.  A great time will be had by all if you see it.  Good luck at the Oscars Colin.