Saw this today (figured I should, since it won Best Picture) and it's a pretty great movie. Beautifully shot and absolutely great acting. It also compares well with Black Swan in that it's a movie about trying to perfect a performance.

If you're avoiding it because it looks like a stiff period piece, don't. It's very funny in parts and really engaging.

i agree with all of that nate

Very good film. Also quite emotional in parts, particularly the end.

i want to see this. perhaps i will soon.

is this a movie that could have been equally effective as a stage performance?

I don't think so. The cinematography really helps. Lots of narrow hallways, wide lenses, cool stuff like that. There's also one shot that looks just like a Norman Rockwell painting that is absolutely beautiful.

I had a really bad stammer when I was younger so I definitely got a little more out of it. Had a little waterworks towards the end. Great movie.

It was a play first I believe. I'm anxious to see it. Watched a documentary about the real story the other night. Some tough stuff that guy went through.

i've heard nothing but good things--the performances, writing, cinemetography all included--but i'm concerned that it will be too theatrical (and not in the "brazen and flamboyant" connotation). i'm not a diehard subscriber to the auteur theory, but i tend not to venerate movies that play out like biographical or historical novels adapted for a stage performance. i enjoy the kubrick/fellini/lynch side of the spectrum more than the hitchcock/russell/anderson side. give me something that can only exist on screen. otherwise, why turn the camera on?

but i enjoy a good performance as much as the next guy. i've heard too much praise about firth and rush not to check it out.

and strong men also cry, orpheus. strong men also cry.

do you enjoy eating quail, alex?

quail is dreck compared to fellow upland game bird the sage grouse

this movie contains a Helena Bonham Carter performance i can get behind

I liked it.

Agreed, it's really, really good. Fantastic performances (always been a big fan of Firth and Rush) and I loved the look of it. It's a great screenplay, too, and the final 15 minutes is exhilarating.

I'm rather surprised to be reading all these comments. It feels like I've heard for the last couple weeks virtually everywhere else from people have seen this that much like titles in the past like Gladiator, Slumdog and Crash, this is a perfectly fine film, but nothing really especially fantastic about it that would warrant actually being Best Picture.

a consequence of RM's acute sense of nuance, really

It's a little too Oscar-y.

this may be the greatest movie of all time

trying too hard lately spike