A peach of a Speech

If its difficult to listen to, its visibly painful for the speaker: Prince Albert, the Duke of York (Colin Firth), the son of the king of England. He looks every inch the regal, aristocratic figurehead, until he opens his mouth. His voice is bold but broken, thanks to a persistent stutter that causes certain syllables to catch in his throat or stick on his tongue. When this happens, the dukes face freezes up in frustrated agony; a speech impediment is enough of a challenge, but he has the added burden of being a public figure. No wonder when he walks to a microphone to address an audience, he moves as if he was on his way to face a firing squad.

The way Firth taps into the turbulent emotional storm raging inside the duke is wonderful to watch. Fearful, furious and humiliatingly helpless, the duke has resigned himself to lurk in the long shadows cast by his older brother, King Edward VIII (Guy Pearce), and his dismissive father, King George V (Michael Gambon), who thinks the quickest way to set someone at ease is to shout at them to "relax!"

After spending much of the past decade trading on his charm and wit in romantic comedies like "Bridget Joness Diary," "Love Actually" and "Mamma Mia!" Firth has suddenly re-emerged as a serious actor to reckon with. His haunting portrayal in "A Single Man" of a gay college professor in the early 1960s silently mourning the loss of his lover won him a well-deserved Oscar nomination. In "Speech," he has a slightly showier role, which allows him opportunities to discover the dukes unexpressed resentments and recriminations, the secrets that he has locked away beneath a slightly haughty, buttoned-down faade. When the duke finally finds the courage to be honest with himself, Firths performance builds to a thrilling crescendo: Its as if we can suddenly see directly into his soul.

Although "Speech" may sound like a dry historical snapshot or a high-toned "disease of the week" movie, its nothing of the kind. If David Seidlers screenplay takes more than a few liberties with historical details, the end result manages to be so astonishingly funny and genuinely inspirational that the alterations are easy to forgive.

Much of the movie is unexpectedly lighthearted, as the Duchess of York (the splendid Helena Bonham Carter) persuades her reluctant spouse to consult with Lionel Logue (Geoffrey Rush), an unorthodox therapist who turns out to be as iron-willed and demanding as his patient.

"In here, its better if were equals," Logue blithely tells a distrustful duke. "My castle, my rules."

The therapy sessions — and the ongoing tug-of-war between doctor and duke — are marvelously played by both Firth and Rush, although the elegant, energetic Bonham Carter is every bit their match as a sort of royal referee who wont allow her husband (whom she calls "Bertie") to give up.

The supporting cast is full of sharply crafted work from Timothy Spall as Winston Churchill, Claire Bloom as a fussy Queen Mary, Eve Best as Edwards controversial consort Wallis Simpson (seen here as the ultimate ugly American, a woman so crass she refers to Balmoral Castle as "our country shack"), Derek Jacobi as an uppity archbishop and Jennifer Ehle as Logues amusingly starstruck wife.

The Kings Speech

opens Saturday, Dec. 25 at Celebration!Cinema Lansing and NCG Eastwood www.celebrationcinema.com www.ncgmovies.com