Some Times You Feel Like a Nut; Sometimes You Don't.

You remember that old commercial for Mounds and Almond Joy candybars? Sometimes you feel like a nut; sometimes you don't? No? Well, I do. It was like that for the denizens of 590 Otis Road last week. Among the movies we viewed over the Christmas holiday were "The King's Speech" and "Little Fockers". Both films feature Academy Award winning actors, but it's pretty unlikely you'd confuse them with each other.

"The King's Speech" is a much-ballyhoo'd critic's darling. Critically acclaimed, sure; but it's also entertaining and emotionally satisfying. "The King's Speech" follows the personal struggles of the man who would become King George VI. Colin Firth plays the stammering George brilliantly. George is pushed by his wife, played by Helena Bonham Carter, to seek the help of an untitled Australian-born speech therapist, played by Geoffrey Rush. Rush turns in an Oscar-worthy performance as a frustrated actor turned speech coach, Lionel Logue, but it's Helena Bonham Carter's work as George's wife that I enjoyed the most (but then again, she makes any movie she's in better: "Fight Club" was the Brad Pitt/Edward Norton show, but without Carter's foil it'd've been a lot less; Beatrix LeStrange in the Harry Potter movies would've been a good role for anybody, but she owns it now).

And what's a movie about British Royalty without an exploration of class differences? Interesting juxtaposition between George's need to consort with commoner Logue for the good of the Empire; and that of his brother, "David"- briefly King Edward- who abdicated in order to experience connubial bliss as husband to twice-divorced American Wallis Simpson. This is a wonderful movie. It's a history movie that plays like a sports movie: Will George be able to set aside his fears to lead his people at the on-set of World War II? Will he learn to love himself and to be and have a friend? Will be able to get through the most important speech of his life? When George greets his wife at the end of the movie, you can almost hear Rocky shouting "Adrian!" into the crowd at the end of his title fight. As we walked out of the lovely Terrace Theater in Charleston, Lady Di heard a fellow theater-goer opine, "That's the best movie I've seen in five years".

Which brings me to the other movie I saw over the weekend...

"Little Fockers" is the third installment in the Ben Stiller/Robert DeNiro "Focker" franchise. I didn't expect much, and I wasn't disappointed. Projectile vomiting, crotch jokes and broad humor are generally a hit with audiences, if generally not with critics. I'm not sure The Three Stooges ever won an Oscar, but I'd bet you money that more people know Curley's laugh than the name of
Citizen Kane's sled. You don't go to McDonald's looking for Roast Duck with an orange glaze, do you? During our visit to the Boro's lone movie theater, one lady howled with laughter during "Little Fockers". I saw her talking to her husband as we all exited the movie. "Well, I kind of enjoyed that", she noted, with a look of embarrassment. Me, too (just don't tell anybody).