The Academy and the elderly genuflect to The King's Speech

„Kirk Douglas's victory in the Most Noteworthy Moment category — easily trumping Melissa Leo's F-word sally — was a measure of how undramatic this year's Academy Awards were. The main event was predicted, though not precisely predictable; the success for The King's Speech covered most of the board while not going all the way across it: best film, best director, best original screenplay, best actor.

In a neurotic, not-wanting-to-jinx-it-for-them manner I had been predicting a sudden collapse for this film in all sections except Colin Firth's with a huge swing to The Social Network. That didn't happen. Instead, The King's Speech carried (almost) all before it. Even dark rumours about its historical inaccuracies, including an essay from Christopher Hitchens about its tactful rewriting of Winston Churchill's actual loyalties in the late 1930s, could not affect this film's popularity with Academy voters. They persisted in seeing it as the solidest, most plausible candidate. It had a Reaganesque, Teflon-non-stick quality.

The upset is evidently Tom Hooper winning the best director academy award – he certainly defeated some heavyweight candidate nominees. And yet if everyone is agreed that the acting was so great, then a prize for the directing is not so very surprising: it is the director's job to get those performances: this is possibly the most unshowy part of a director's job, distinct from cinematography or art direction.”