Tag Archives: Oscars

The King’s Speech – Movie Review

The King’s Speech. The frontrunner at this year’s Academy Awards, with 12 nominations, including best picture. Where do I start with this… if there was one performance to top what I think James Franco pulled off with 127 Hours (you can check out the review here), it would be Colin Firth.

His performance in the role of King George VI, the father of current queen of Britain Elizabeth II, is astonishing.

The movie’s plot is, in a nutshell, the unexpected rise of Prince Albert, the Duke of York, to become King George VI after his older brother abdicates the throne. The twist? Prince Albert has a severe stutter that limits everything he does in life – from the moment he was a kid. So the movie is him, trying to learn ways to cope and overcome this stutter.

Any actor that can pull off that stutter for almost two hours deserves recognition. The stutter is so limiting, as I said, that there are moments where you simply hold your breath for this man as he tries to utter words that don’t come out. There are other moments where you feel utter joy for him as sentences pour out of his mouth. Regardless of whether you actually know the history of Britain (I don’t), Colin Firth is beyond credible in his impersonation of the character he portrays. He is up for best actor at the Oscars and is the favorite to win. And in all honesty, if either he or James Franco won, I wouldn’t mind.

Off to the other cast in the movie. The other two notable actors are Geoffrey Rush and Helena Bonham Carter. Geoffrey Rush was amazing. Probably my favorite in the best supporting actor race, although he will not win. His role is the unconventional speech coach Albert hires to help him with the stutter. His interaction with Colin Firth on screen is gold.

Helena Bohman Carter was very good as well as the supporting wife. She’s always in the background. But she’s like the catalyst that gets things going. She is up for best supporting actress for her role in this.

There’s a couple of scenes that I think were brilliant but I can’t divulge them here so I don’t spoil them to anyone. However, to conclude this, the movie does not have dull moments. It keeps you engaged throughout.

And it also makes you want to visit London.

Another interesting thing to ask is, what would the current queen of Britain think about this movie?

Here’s the trailer:

127 Hours – Movie Review

I watched 127 Hours about two weeks ago but didn’t have a blog to share my ideas about it. To say this is a must-watch is an understatement. Brought to you by the same crew that gave you “Slumdog Millionaire” two years ago. And if you thought that movie was brilliant (which most of us did), wait till you watch this. It is one of the most breathtaking, exhilarating, awesome, amazing, brilliant, captivating movies I have ever watched. It was beyond perfect. The movie is James Franco and James Franco is the movie. No one else matters. Nothing else matters. You live the movie with him. You share the emotions he’s going through in the movie and at one point, you’d be holding on to dear life when he does the act that would ultimately save his life.

However, unlike Slumdog Millionaire, this doesn’t look like a surefire hit at the Academy Awards this year. But don’t let the lack of awards fool you. It’s a brilliant movie that simply got lost in the momentum of other movies out there (The Social Network comes to mind).

James Franco got nominated for both an Oscar and a Golden Globe for this performance. He is said to be Colin Firth’s main competitor for this year’s award season. He lost the Golden Globe and I believe that, even though this was a more raw performance than Firth, he will lose the Oscar as well because The King’s Speech (Firth’s movie) is building momentum. I will post my thoughts regarding The King’s Speech later.

I won’t go into the plot here but I have to say that Danny Boyle did another great job with directing this. And the overall result is a movie that, as I said, will probably get you to take a look at your life differently – at least for a while.

The score is done by A.R. Rahman. The movie’s theme song is titled “If I Rise” and was co-written with Dido. It is a beautiful tune, representing the movie’s tagline: There Is No Force More Powerful Than The Will To Live, and calling you to rise above the little things in life to lead the best life possible. Check it out: