This year’s Oscar race has basically come down to a two-horse race. At first, it seemed like “The Social Network” would be the obvious front-runner for the Best Picture award. However, after winning the three major guild awards and leading with the most nominations this year, “The King’s Speech” has become the most likely film to win Best Picture at the Oscars and lowered the “The Social Network” to underdog status.
It is true that the display of the monarchy in “The King’s Speech” feels a little unoriginal, but the story isn’t so much about the monarchy as it is about the friendship and the circumstances that King George VI (Colin Firth) engages in. The Academy seems to strongly acclaim stories like “The King’s Speech” that are both feel-good and slightly political. “The King’s Speech” has the better story between the two films, since it follows of one of the most trying times in history (the eve of World War II) from the singular perspective of Britain’s monarch. It is a very inspirational story of one man striving against his demons as he prepares to lead his nation.
Also, actors, who consist of the biggest voting branch, seem to prefer “The Kings Speech” over “The Social Network,” similarly to how they preferred acting-heavy “The Hurt Locker” over “Avatar” during last year’s Oscar race. It is easy to see why actors would vote for “Speech,” since the movie contains excellent chemistry among its lead actors.
In terms of Oscar nominations, “The King’s Speech” currently holds more than “The Social Network.” More actors in the established cast within “The King’s Speech” are nominated for their performances than actors from the cast of “The Social Network.” “The King’s Speech” holds nominations within the Best Actor, Supporting Actor and Supporting Actress categories, while only one performance from “The Social Network” caught the Academy’s eye, indicative of how strong each of the major performances in the film are.
“The King’s Speech” has also won top honors at most of the major award ceremonies, including the Screen Actors Guild awards and the Directors Guild of America. Recall that “Crash” (2005) and “Shakespeare in Love” (1998) won big at the SAG awards before they pulled off upset victories at the Oscars over perceived favorites “Brokeback Mountain” and “Saving Private Ryan,” respectively. Strong acting is perhaps the key ingredient to making a good film a great film.
This year’s Oscar race has proven to be pretty unpredictable, given the different kinds of quality each of these films display. The overall reason why “The King’s Speech” should win the Oscar for Best Picture is because it contains the strongest combination of the most important elements. Certainly it gets a lot of help from its strong and experienced cast, but its engaging original screenplay and Tom Hooper’s excellent direction also help everything come together and make it not only one of the most entertaining but simply the best of the nominees and certainly the most worthy of being honored.