Colin's Oscar Performance!

Rating: 9/10 (5 February 2011)

Colin Firth will definitely win an Academy Award for Best Actor for playing King George VI in this film. The true story of a stammering Duke of York who became King of England during World War II is done remarkably well. I adore Helena Bonham Carter as Queen Mother Elizabeth, his wife. The cast is simply first rate. I barely recognized Jennifer Ehle as Geoffrey Rush's wife. Geoffrey Rush did a remarkable job in playing the speech therapist. In any other year, Rush and Carter would win their Oscars. The nominations are all well-deserved. This period piece of British history is done nearly perfect. The story moves on quickly and it's well-done. The writing is first rate. The direction moves quickly. If anybody wanted to know what makes Queen Elizabeth II, this film should help fill in the missing pieces of the scandal of her Uncle King Edward VII and his scandalous relationship with American divorcée Wallis Simpson. He left the throne for her. While for those of us who aren't aristocracy, we can't imagine what they're lives are like. Shakespeare has written about kings and men who seek it. Not George VI better known as Bertie. I think he would have rather preferred to be a commoner like the rest of us. Instead, he sacrificed his personal life to lead a nation in it's most difficult time. It's not an easy job even now. Bertie would be very proud of his daughter, Elizabeth II, and her reign as Queen.