By LINDSEY TANNER, AP Medical Writer – Fri Feb 4, 1:10 pm ET
CHICAGO – A movie about a stuttering monarch, without sex, car chases or super heroes, hardly sounds like blockbuster box-office fare.
But in a less flashy way, “The King’s Speech” is about a hero, one who battles an invisible enemy that torments nearly 70 million people around the world. In demystifying the little-understood speech impediment, the award-winning film reveals myths and fascinating truths about stuttering, and has won praise from stutterers of all ages.
For Erik Yehl, an 11-year-old Chicago boy who began stuttering in preschool, the movie’s powerful message is, “I’m not stupid.”
It’s a stigma all people who stutter contend with — the notion that because their words sometimes sputter or fail to come out at all, their minds must be somehow mixed up.
“People who stutter — their minds are perfectly good, and they’re not deaf, and they don’t need to be told to breathe. They know how to breathe. What they need … is to be listened to,” said Susan Hardy, who saw the film with her son Aidan, a 14-year-old Chicago eighth-grader who also stutters.
Aidan’s mini-review? “It was great!” he said.
The film depicts King George VI, father of England’s Queen Elizabeth II, as a reluctant leader tortured by his stuttering. But with a sense of duty as England confronts a second world war, he musters the courage to seek speech therapy so he can address and calm an anxious nation.
The movie and its actors have already won Golden Globes and other honors, including 12 Oscar nominations. The Academy Awards ceremony is Feb. 27.
