FRODO SEVEN : And the Award Goes to....

....Colin Firth and The King's Speech. At least that's what we're crossing our fingers for here at Casa Doyle. Unfortunately, we may have to stay in suspense until tomorrow as we don't usually watch the awards. In fact, the last time I watched the Academy Awards may have been in 1998 when Roberto Benigni won Best Actor for his role in the absolutely amazing movie, Life is Beautiful. His acceptance was very memorable. If you missed it the first time around, click here to see it. The other red carpet moment I'll never forget is Cuba Gooding Jr's acceptance of the award for Best Supporting Actor in 1996 for the film Jerry Maguire. JM is an all time favorite of mine and Chris' for many reasons but even someone who's not a huge fan of the movie could not help but love CGJ's character. When he accepted the award, he went straight from thanking his wife to a lengthy and moving thank you to God and then a lot of shouting "I love you"s, just as his character would've done. I think he went way over his time limit but there were smiles all around. Click here to see it for yourself.

This year, I am not very familiar with most of the movies. I almost went to see Black Swan with Natalie Portman but when I looked up a review on the Catholic Bishops' website, it was rated O meaning morally offensive for everyone and when I saw the listed content, I could see why. So, no thank you.

The King's Speech on the other hand is an A+ movie and if you haven't seen it, I encourage you to stop reading here lest I spoil it for you. The film is about George VI (played by Colin Firth) who, because of his brother's decision to abdicate the throne, leads England through the second World War. The film covers the period before the war up to England's entanglement in it and is primarily about the monarch's problem with stuttering and the relationship he develops with his speech therapist, Lionel Logue. TKS is one of those meaty films that I love because there are so many angles from which to examine it and so many things to discuss. I was particularly interested in the themes of duty and sacrifice. It was quite ironic and even perplexing that older brother David, while talented and able-bodied, was unable to embrace his duty to his country while his younger brother with a serious speech impediment did. If the film's R rating has scared you off at all, there is supposedly a tamer version either in theaters or in the works. The film earned the R for the string of expletives Colin Firth delivers during therapy to help untangle his tongue. The profanity is not gratuitous and makes complete sense in the context of the film.

And speaking of Colin Firth, I have admired him as Mr. Darcy for quite awhile now. He played a different but just as handsome Darcy in Bridget Jone's Diary and its sequel and, regardless of the film he's in, does a spectacular job. I read that for this role, he worked so hard on producing an effective stutter that he actually stuttered off hours unintentionally and because of the verisimilitude he achieved, audiences were able to really see and hear how disabling a speech impediment can be.

In interviews, Colin Firth commented jokingly that he did not consider all of the camera angles and close-ups chosen by director Tom Hooper to be personally flattering to him. Maybe not, but his nonverbal communication was key to the story and he was both convincing and moving. He is a fine actor and I hope he wins.

Flashing back a week:

Last week at this time, we enjoyed a beautiful day at the Houston Zoo and, so as to leave you with a few photos, here are some from that afternoon.