The King’s Speech

Tom Hooper’s solidly entertaining Oscar winner The King’s Speech was a box office and critical hit, but it was also sent through the seven stages of awards-season achievement last winter. This process, in which a decent but unspectacular film is alternately overrated and underrated in the public consciousness week by week depending on which camp is the most self-righteous and annoying, was previously navigated by The Hurt Locker in 2010 and Slumdog Millionaire in 2009. Was The King’s Speech a safe, glib throwaway that reduced shattering world events to personal quirks and its characters to clichés? Yes, of course, but it’s also a smart political soap opera-cum-pseudo sports movie (complete with cheering-crowd money shot) anchored by Colin Firth’s career-crescendo lead performance and an unusually restrained supporting turn from Geoffrey Rush. If nothing else, this Best Picture-winning costumer should age better than the unwatchable Shakespeare in Love.