The King's Speech (2010)

Best Picture, 2011 ceremony. Colin Firth and Geoffrey Rush make the sessions between a reluctant monarch and his speech therapist companionable, prickly and often funny. Those exchanges are the reason to return. For this viewer, the ceremonial build towards the broadcast increasingly outweighs them: scenes announce the importance of speaking successfully when the quieter struggle has already made it clear. A satisfying first crescendo leaves less emotional space to explore the next time.