Bonus points for Beethoven

We saw The King's Speech the other day--fantastic movie! Reviews of the movie abound, so I won't bother with another recap. I'd seen some trailers and thought it looked interesting, then I saw my friend Romy's review and absolutely had to see it.

I love that it's based on a true story, and Colin Firth was incredible. I can imagine that it's a lot easier to fake an exaggerated stutter than to portray the tension and exertion of one trying oh-so-hard not to stutter. Reviews of the movie abound, so I won't bother with another recap. For me, the icing on the cake was the exquisite use of Beethoven in this movie. Now the allegretto from Beethoven's seventh symphony is hardly obscure, but in the climactic scene of The King's Speech, it was absolutely perfect. It starts off quietly, carefully, but not tentative, yet with underlying strength and determination. Then it builds, gaining confidence until it soars in triumph, all the while perfectly timed with the speech.

I was tickled to find out that I was not the only one who was thoroughly moved by this scene's use of Beethoven. This article even contains a link to the music.

I also saw Eat, Pray, Love recently, another movie for which I had high hopes. Unfortunately this one did not quite live up to my expectations. I haven't exactly read the book, but I did the next best thing. I listened to it on CD, all 11 CD's of it, read by the author. Needless to say, this took quite some time because I listened only in my car, and only when I was alone for more than a few minutes. By the time I was done and returned it to the library, I felt like I was losing a friend.

Julia Roberts was good, as usual, and the photography was nice, but I was hoping it would be more like the book. I guess that's the price one pays for compressing it down into 133 minutes.

I've also been watching Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Or I should say, I've been trying to watch this. I think I've tried three times now, and I fell asleep every time. Some people might find this blasphemous, but I've been getting less and less into Harry Potter with each movie, and I think he's finally lost me. I think I like the idea of the Harry Potter stories more than I like the actual films.