Does The King's Speech deserve all this praise?

I don't usually go for the Masterpiece Theater-ish highly stylized British period productions, especially about royalty, about whom I have little interest and no empathy, but "The King's Speech" rises above the type and above my expectations - it's a truly fine movie and deserving of its many laudits and Oscar nominations, and it will probably win most of them (though I'm kind of hoping to see Social Network win best picture - we tend to forget about films we saw earlier in the year, as do Oscar voters). The main strength is the the film builds a strong, friendly relationship between its two main characters, who are so different - Duke of York later George VI (Colin Firth) and his speech therapist, Lionel Logue (Geoffrey Rush). There are a million male-bonding buddy movies and dozens of patient-therapist movies (e.g., Good Will Hunting, Ordinary People, Prince of Tides), too, but this one, adding the elements of a social class and British history as Hitler rises to power (the only hinted-at undercurrent is that the Duke's older brother, Edward who abdicates, would have embraced Hitler - the therapy for George VI played an unstated role in altering the fate of the world), rises above the type. First time, ever other than in Shakespeare, I've felt great sympathy for a king - because this movie makes him completely human, fallible, and knowable. Firth is extraordinary in a really difficult part; Rush excellent, too; and who doesn't like to watch Helena Bonham Carter? Highest praise of all to the screenwriter, who should definitely win for original screenplay - the scenes of the speech therapy are terrific, some great family moments, both the royal family and the Logue family in their run-down flat, lots of witticisms that had the whole audience in laughter. Everything about the movie, from its clever title to the beautiful use of period detail, works to perfection.