"The King's Speech"

I predict that along with Best Actor, "The King's Speech" will win the Oscar for Best Picture. Because it is the best picture. I give this film, without question, a 5/5.

As we all know, Colin Firth plays King George VI--aka Albert--aka Bertie. As the Duke of York he is required to speak publicly, no small feat for a man with a supposedly incurable stammer. After Bertie sees just about every doctor possible, Elizabeth (Helena Bonham Carter) seeks out Lionel Logue (Geoffrey Rush), an Australian speech therapist, as a last resort; he is not a doctor--rather a failed actor-- and his methods are infamously "controversial."

The repartee (albeit, at times, paused) between Logue and Bertie is simultaneously humorous and heartbreaking. Logue's quick wit and familiarity serve as sharp juxtapositions to Bertie's stutter and propriety. Despite the world of differences between the two, a friendship burgeons; of course, the relationship experiences its valleys and peaks but-- as we can all predict-- Logue's methods prove successful. The speech to which the title refers smoothly slips through the lips of the country's new monarch.

While the film mostly focuses on Bertie's relationship with his speech impediment and the man who helps him overcome it, the story is not without its necessary context. The man who was never meant to be king finds himself at the crux of the matter because his older brother renounced the throne "in order to marry the woman I love." Despite King George V's compliments (on his deathbed) toward Prince Albert, King George VI was never meant to be. In addition to his lack of training, his stutter--another cross to bare-- adds more trouble. But it is because of these downfalls that one is ruthlessly rooting for Bertie in this incredibly important moment-- the onset of WWII.

In addition to stellar performances all around, the film is beautifully shot with a unique--but satisfying-- blend of close-ups and angles. "The King's Speech" is more than an historical drama-- it's a stunning mixture of "Cinderella," "Rudy," British circumstance (something that seems so incomprehensible to us commoners) and basic humanity. "The King's Speech" is the film of the year.