As for Katharine Hepburn, she is magnificent what other actress could have played this role? Anthony Harvey, an experienced editor, has performed as a virtuoso in his second film as a director (after ' Dutchman'). I'm not convinced it's the best picture of the year, but I think Peter O'Toole's performance is of Oscar quality, and Anthony Hopkins and Timothy Dalton deserve nominations for their supporting roles as Richard and Philip. I imagine 'The Lion in Winter' will be a leading contender for this year's Academy Award. He gives his characters a most effective language it seems direct, and yet it has a gracefulness and wit. He is as good as Shaw in getting people on and off stage at one point, he has three people hidden behind tapestries when Henry visits Philip's room, and he gets them all out without faltering in his command of the scene. James Goldman's fine script handles this situation in a series of meetings between the principals. Adapted by James Goldman from his own play, Lion won three Oscars, for Hepburn (her third, and back-to-back with Guess Whos Coming to Dinner), Goldman.

But, Henry has not been able to appoint an heir yet, and what's more, the girl's become his mistress. He wants to know when his sister will be married to the heir to the throne. Henry calls a Christmas court, letting his wife, Eleanor of Aquitaine ( Katharine Hepburn) out of prison for the occasion. He has three sons: John, his favorite, a sniveling slack-jaw Richard, the soldier genius and Geoffrey, reserved and quiet. Henry II ( Peter O'Toole) is 50 years old and wants to choose his heir before he dies. The action is mostly contained within one day, a Christmas Eve. They look real, and inhabit a world that looks lived in. We believe in the complicated intrigue these people get themselves into because we believe in them. In this England, 250 years earlier than the time of Thomas More, there are dogs and dirt floors, rough furskins and pots of stew, pigs, mud, dungeons-and human beings. That's not the case with 'The Lion in Winter.' Henry II rules a world in which kings still kicked aside chickens on their way through the courtyard, and he wears a costume that looks designed to be put on in November and shed layer by layer during April.

The lion in winter by james goldman