TWO GOOD FILMS

I have seen two good films in the cinema during the past week.

On Sunday I went with my wife and daughter to see The King's Speech in Odense. The film cleaned up at this year's Oscars, winning best film, best director and best actor. It's a simple tale of a man's struggle against adversity, the adversity being a stammer and the man being King George VI, thrust into the role against his will by the 1936 abdication of his elder brother Edward VIII. I really enjoyed it.

Tonight I went with my daughter to see The Social Network at the local cinema. This is about the founding of Facebook, which - remarkably - didn't exist until the beginning of 2004 and now has hundreds of millions of members, myself included. Mark Zuckerberg is obviously a brilliant computer geek, and his idea (if, indeed, it really was his idea) quickly made him the world's youngest billionaire. But if the film is true, then he also screwed his one real friend in the process, which doesn't make him very endearing. Compelling to watch in a slightly repellant way.

Walter Blotscher