The King's Speech (2010)

Nominated for:  Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress, Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography, Best Costume Design, Best Director, Best Editing, Best Original Score, Best Sound Mixing, Best Original Screenplay

  So this is the 9th Best Picture nominee I've seen with only 6 days left until the big night.  Whew.  I don't know about you guys, but I'm exhausted.

So this one is pretty much a lock for Best Actor.  Hell, QE2 gave her seal of approval.  I love Geoffrey Rush and Helena Bonham Carter but I just don't think they can beat out Christian Bale or Julianne Moore.  As for the rest, I'm not sure yet.  I feel like a couple are just too close to call.  Much as I would love to see my crazy ballerina movie win, I think it'll come down to this one and The Social Network which is galling but what are you going to do.

Anyway, in case you haven't heard, this is the story of King George VI and his speech therapist.

As an American girl, I was always told that King Edward VIII abdicated the throne rather than be separated from the woman he loved, divorced socialite Wallis Simpson of Baltimore, Maryland.  It was part of the fantasy of American women becoming legitimate princesses a la Grace Kelly, as well as the greater "you can be anything by virtue of your American-ness" mythology this country was founded on.
This movie takes a rather different view, painting Edward 8 as a weak-willed man in thrall to a gold-digging whore.

George VI, Bertie before being crowned, always struggled with a speech impediment but never really cared to have it fixed because he was only second in line for the throne.  After the abdication, however, he suddenly has to lead a country on the brink of war and inspire his people using the newfangled invention of radio.  Enter Lionel Logue, an Australian with unconventional methods who insists on equality in the therapy room.

Maybe it's a product of the royalty propaganda machine and that whole "divine right" mentality, but it's so difficult to think of a king as a small child, tormented by siblings because of a stammer, and growing up borderline abused by a member of household staff.  He was a prince, for God's sake.  That kind of shit isn't supposed to happen.  It's supposed to be all solid gold pacifiers and having your own pony and tutors and stuff.  Being royalty is supposed to be better than being normal, otherwise why even have it?

I suppose that's my in-born egalitarianism showing through.