YOU MUST SEE THIS MOVIE!!

Today, while my husband was watching the multitudes of bowl games that were on TV, I went to see "Les Miserables", the new movie that opened Christmas Day.  As I have mentioned in a previous post, "Les Mis" is my favorite musical play of all times, and this movie does not disappoint either!  I know I will be going back to see it again soon, because there are always so many things you miss in a motion picture that is nearly 3 hours long.  It is very true to the original play, and Colm Wilkinson, the original Jean Valjean, portrays the priest who saves Hugh Jackman (Valjean in the movie) when he steals silverware from the church.  I thought that was a very nice tribute to the man who made the role famous.  Anyway, even if your husband or boyfriend refuses to go to a musical, go yourself, or, better yet, go with a girlfriend or two.  Then you can cry together.  Ann Hathaway is wonderful as Fontine, and I think she'll probably get at least an Academy Award Nomination.  Ahhhhh, there's nothing I like better than a great movie that touches my very soul, and this one did. 

The King's Speech

Today's post is to give a "plug" to a movie I went to yesterday - "The King's Speech" starring Colin Firth of "Bridget Jones' Diary" and "Mama Mia" fame.  He is an absolutely wonderful actor, and has been nominated for an academy award for this film.  In fact the movie has 12 Academy Award nominations in all!  I was blown away at how good he is in this film, playing Queen Elizabeth II's father, King George VI, who inherited the throne when his brother abdicated to marry the twice divorced American commoner Wallis Simpson - quite the scandal at the time.  The plot is simple.  This man stutters (or "bloody well stammers") as he calls it, and his wife (the recently deceased Queen Mum, Elizabeth's mother) hires a very unusual man, played by Geoffrey Rush, to be his speech therapist.  It is the relationship between these two men that is the story, and it couldn't be better!  I learned quite a bit about the royal family in the early years, and also about a king about whom very little is written.  You must go see it!  That's all I'm going to say about that.