Columnist roots for The King’s Speech

By Barrett Lile, Columnist

Barrett Lile, Columnist

Though the Super Bowl of 2011 has already come and gone, my own personal Super Bowl is due on Feb. 27. Yes, I am talking about the 83^rd annual Academy Awards.

Two years have passed since the Academy decided to expand its best picture category to 10 nominees instead of five, which shall continue to make the struggle for the golden Oscar just as brutal as it was last year. Yet the greatest tension  is experienced when the struggle comes down to the two nominees which have been unofficially predicted to win.

Last year, the final two contenders were James Cameron and Kathryn Bigelow. The weapons of choice were James Cameron’s visual epic, Avatar, which already had become the highest-grossing movie of all time before the Academy Awards, and Kathryn Bigelow’s underdog war-drama, The Hurt Locker, which, ironically, was the lowest-grossing movie to ever win best picture. It was an iconic “David-and-Goliath” victory. Only in this case, David was the ex-wife of Goliath, as Kathryn was to James. You could cut the tension with a chainsaw.

Regardless of last year’s epic clashes, here we are with a new year and a new batch of contenders. The 10 nominees this year are:

• 127 Hours,
• Winter’s Bone,
• Toy Story 3,
• Inception,
• The Kids Are All Right,
• The Fighter,
• Black Swan,
• True Grit,
• The Social Network,
• and The King’s Speech.

Yet, out of those 10, the two destined champions that stand out are The King’s Speech, the story about King George VI’s struggle to overcome his stuttering speech impediment in order to deliver a speech that would give England courage to stand behind him in the outbreak of World War II, and The Social Network, a recounting of Mark Zuckerberg’s rise to success in becoming history’s youngest billionaire for his creation of Facebook.

I have seen both films, each of them three times, and, if the decision was given to me, I would award best picture to The King’s Speech.

What I loved about this film was Colin Firth’s portrayal of a man of royal power often finding himself helpless before his country and kin because of his own downfalls. Geoffrey Rush’s performance as Lionel Logue also was excellent. Playing a speech expert, though lacking a degree in his field, still finds the professionalism and friendship to cure the king’s dilemma. I also enjoyed Helena Bonham Carter’s portrayal of Queen Elizabeth, whose own nobility and strength caters to the discovery of the king’s own.

The beautiful cinematography that captured the artistic scenery of the film’s settings, and the perfectly timed wit and film’s insightful drama also were of note.

I found The Social Network to be a great movie in its musical score by Nine Inch Nails front man, Trent Reznor.

The  cinematography, and cast performances, including Jesse Eisenberg’s delivery of arrogance and ignorance as well as discovery and brilliance, should be noted.

Yet the film wasn’t as insightful as The King’s Speech. The characters were very much authentic, their choices and reactions as legitimate as the other’s, but in the grand scheme of things, it is a business movie. Sure it involves young college graduates who had no idea of the roads ahead, but I found The King’s Speech to be more in-depth to man’s struggles in his own rise to success.

Despite my own opinion, The Social Network did win the 2011 Golden Globe for best picture, so the contest between The King’s Speech and The Social Network is very much alive and undecided. Tune in to the Academy Awards on Sunday, Feb. 27 to witness the victor.