Bet it's the Oscars
Saturday, February 26, 2011
Despite originally starting as the dark horse, The King's Speech is racing towards Oscars glory at the 83rd Academy Awards on Monday. The Social Network was the early favourite to take the best picture Oscar, but British Australian co-production The King's Speech has since stuttered to a comfortable lead with 1/4 odds for best picture ahead of the Facebook movie at 11/4. The King's Speech director Tom Hooper says while the prospect of taking out the major categories is ``fantastic'', he's trying not to get ahead of himself.``I like to keep focus on what has already happened and I'm delighted just to have 12 nominations,'' he says.
``There's a lot to celebrate in that.''
The film's star, Colin Firth, looks set to have plenty to celebrate at the Oscars after party. Bookies have him as the shortest-priced favourite in Oscars history. Best actress honours are also likely to be a sure thing, with Natalie Portman (Black Swan) at 1/10 and Annette Bening (The Kids Are All Right) at 5/1. Unfortunately, Australian nominees Nicole Kidman (best actress, 66/1) and Jacki Weaver (best supporting actress, 66/1) are outsiders, while Geoffrey Rush (best supporting actor, 3/1) trails hot favourite Christian Bale (1/5).
The Australian with the best chance of climbing the podium to make an acceptance speech is film editor Kirk Baxter, whose editing work on The Social Network has him at 1/5, with his main rivals 127 Hours and The King's Speech at 6/1. Other Australians nominated for Oscars include producer Emile Sherman (The King's Speech), animated short film director Shaun Tan (The Lost Thing) and visual effects gurus Ben Snow (Iron Man 2) and Joe Farrell (Hereafter).
In a year in which the favourites are tipped to triumph, the best director category is shaping up as the closest thing to a nail-biter. Christopher Nolan's (Inception) controversial absence in the best director category has left Hooper (The King's Speech) and David Fincher (The Social Network) in the Oscar's closest race at 7/4 and 21/50 respectively. Who would have thought a film that looks exactly like Oscar bait a bullied Brit overcomes adversity while his knowing and unconventional mentor looks on would turn out to be just that? Well, besides everyone.
The 83rd Annual Academy Awards screen Monday from 9am on Pay TV's Starpicsth1 and from 9.40pm on Nine and NBN.
His wife has dragged him along to every speech therapist and doctor to no avail, that is, until she comes across the talents of unorthodox Australian speech therapist Lionel Logue (Geoffrey Rush, above). Reluctantly, Bertie begins sessions with Logue which include peculiar exercises, outbursts of swearing, psychological tricks and what soon develops into an unlikely friendship between the pair. But after the death of his father the King (Michael Gambon), his older brother King Edward (Guy Pearce) is more interested in chasing American tale than fulfilling his duties as King, while across the way Hitler is gaining power and momentum. Bertie's speech improvement and newfound confidence is going to be put to the test in a time when the nation needs him more than ever.
The sets shy away from the overly-Royal sentiment that so often drowns period pieces. Instead it truly captures the grim and depressing sentiment of a nation on the brink of another war. And although the ingredients are right, The King's Speech can't help but become boring in patches. Between the fantastic montages of Bertie and Logue practising colourful speech techniques come tedious scenes, heavy in dialogue and little else. It's a shame, because director Tom Hooper has gone to such effort to make this period-piece as detailed and revealing as possible, which it is. However, in the end the stuffy British-ness tends to weigh the film down.
The God of Thunder or King George VI with a stammer? That was what it came down to for director Tom Hooper who was tossing up between comic-book movie Thor and period drama The King's Speech as his next project. But with The King's Speech headed for Oscars glory, Hooper definitely made the right decision.
Which makes sense, considering Geoffrey Rush plays an unconventional Australian speech therapist who's called in to help fix the debilitating stammer of King George VI, played by Colin Firth. Hooper himself is half-Australian and says it was his Australian mother who first introduced him to The King's Speech via an underground version on the London theatre scene. The film has come a long way from theatre origins to industry insiders touting it as a red-hot Oscars favourite, with nominations likely across several major categories
But the filmmaker is more enthusiastic about Firth and Rush's chances of winning at the awards, with Helena Bonham Carter even an outside chance for best supporting actress.