King's Speech woos BAFTA

Surprise, surprise. Seven BAFTAs seems just about what I would have thought for The King's Speech, although I wasn't quite expecting it to take three of the four acting prizes. Helena Bonham Carter winning Best Supporting Actress is only semi-surprising, given frontrunner Melissa Leo's lack of a nomination, but Geoffrey Rush upsetting Christian Bale... let's just hope this doesn't materialize with the Academy.

What most surprises me is that it only took home one craft award (for Original Score). Most people are preparing themselves for an Oscar sweep of sorts, but BAFTA has done a nice job spreading the wealth around. Some choices are dubious, like two awards for Alice in Wonderland (including Costume Design, its biggest Oscar opportunity), but others are inspired, like the Film Editing win for The Social Network. And despite all odds, Inception keeps picking up those richly deserved but hardly expected citations for its year-best Production Design. Might there be hope for Oscar after all?

Black Swan's impressive nomination tally of 12 yielded only a single win for Natalie Portman, but that should hopefully be enough to help her fend off a late surge from Annette Bening.

And what of David Fincher's win? Is he strong enough to overcome Tom Hooper?

Obviously The King's Speech is still going to win Best Picture, but The King's Sweep is looking a bit vulnerable.

Best Film – The King’s Speech
Best Director – The Social Network – David Fincher
Best Leading Actress – Natalie Portman – Black Swan
Best Leading Actor – Colin Firth – The King’s Speech
Best Supporting Actress – Helena Bonham Carter – The King’s Speech
Best Supporting Actor – Geoffrey Rush – The King’s Speech
Best Adapted Screenplay – The Social Network – Aaron Sorkin
Best Original Screenplay – The King’s Speech – David Seidler
Outstanding British Film – The King’s Speech
Outstanding British Debut – Four Lions – Chris Morris
Best Cinematography – True Grit – Roger Deakins
Best Editing – The Social Network – Angus Wall, Kirk Baxter
Best Original Music – The King’s Speech – Alexandre Desplat
Best Production Design – Inception – Guy Hendrix Dyas, Larry Dias, Doug Mowat
Best Costume Design: Alice in Wonderland – Colleen Atwood
Best Sound – Inception – Richard King, Lora Hirschberg, Gary A Rizzo, Ed Novick
Best Special Visual Effects – Inception – Corbould, Franklin, Lockley, Bebb
Best Make Up & Hair – Alice in Wonderland – Valli O’Reilly, Paul Gooch
Best Short Film – Until the River Runs Red – Paul Wright, Poss Kondeatis
Best Short Animation – The Eagleman Stag – Michael Please
Best Film Not in the English Language – The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
Best Animated Film – Toy Story 3
Orange Wednesdays Rising Star Award – Tom Hardy

One Category at a Time: Supporting Actor

What more is there really to say about this category? Or any acting category for that matter? The same four performers have won the BFCA, Golden Globe, and SAG awards and will all probably continue on to take the Oscars.

There's only one possible scenario I can envision in which Christian Bale does not win this; a bona fide sweep for The King's Speech. If the voters really are as lazy as that when they have their ballots in hand, and vote for the film in every category, Geoffrey Rush can ride that pony all the way to podium. But that's not gonna happen. Performances are one thing that Academy members will vote for based on their own merits, rather than the merits of the film. That, or they vote for whichever star they like, and the way Bale's been walking the rope line and charming his way through the circuit, I can't see him not winning this. It also helps that his performance is by far more complex and fully realized than Rush's good-humoured but comparatively thin one.

Oh yeah, John Hawkes, Jeremy Renner, and Mark Ruffalo are all nominated too, but they're just along for the ride, which is too bad because they delivered some of the finest performances of the year, all of them making my own top five. Renner had us on edge all the way, Hawkes nailed nastiness and goodness all at once, and Ruffalo made easy-going look so much easier than it truly is! I really wish any of them could have won something this year, but you can't derail Bale!

Will win: Christian Bale, The Fighter
Runner-up: Geoffrey Rush, The King's Speech

Should win: Mark Ruffalo, The Kids Are All Right
Should have been nominated: Ed Harris, The Way Back

Review - The King's Speech

With an uplifting outlook, spry sense of humour, and touching portrayal of an unlikely friendship, The King's Speech makes for a satisfying piece of lite entertainment.

The Duke of York, Albert Fredrick Arthur George (or Bertie as we affectionately come to know him), has a problem. Having been neglected and mistreated all his life in the shadow of older brother Edward, the heir to their father's throne, Bertie has developed a nervous stammer that undermines him and the significance of his royal station every time he attempts to speak. His wife Elizabeth seeks the aid of Australian speech therapist Lionel Logue, who is ambitious about getting to the root of Bertie`s troubles. The mechanics of speaking is not the issue. It's poor Bertie's confidence and sense of self-worth that needs a shot in the arm, especially with WWII looming on the horizon.

Colin Firth is quite excellent as Bertie. He's able to elicit our sympathy easily enough, but it's the more rough-around-the-edge qualities like his quick temper and social elitism that bring a sense of humanity to his character. He plays very well with Geoffrey Rush as Logue, enjoying a warm but sometimes tense chemistry from which stems the movie's heart. Themes about class distinctions and inequality are made, albeit a tad bluntly, by David Seidler's witty script, and are fleshed out even more by Eve Stewart's magnificent production design.

Obviously, anyone who even reads this site and others like it already knows that this film is an Oscar frontrunner. Nominations for Picture, Director, Actor, Supporting Actor, Supporting Actress, Original Screenplay, Art Direction, Costume Design, and probably Original Score are on their way. I'd be really pleased to see it nab a nomination for film editor Tariq Anwar as well, whose shrewd cutting does a terrific job at evoking just the right tone for each scene.

*** out of ****