A royal, bright spot on the holiday movie scene

It’s funny how expectations can color your view of a movie. I expected to love “True Grit” and I only liked it. I expected to loathe “The King’s Speech” and yet I loved it.

That’s not to say that my observations were dependent on my preconceptions. But they were likely shaped by them.

In recent weeks I’ve been doing reviews for Spokane Public Radio, which runs them Friday mornings at 7:30 on KPBX , Saturday afternoons at 1:30 on KSFC.

The following is one section of my forthcoming review of “The King’s Speech.” I’m talking about what director Tom Hooper’s style lends to the overall story. Tune in to hear the rest of it.

“On one hand, he explores the characters of both Bertie — the poor, abused boy who would be king — and of Logue, the man singularly without credentials who, nevertheless, knows his business. As played, respectively, by Colin Firth and Geoffrey Rush, the two are as matched as bookends holding the collected works of Charles Dickens.”

Below : The trailer for “The King’s Speech.,”