Children of a Lesser God

source: Children of a Lesser God

This film is not a comedy by any means even though the plot, which has to do with a speech teacher (William Hurt) for deaf students falling for one of his former students (Marlee Matlin) may sound a little hokey and contrived. The film is pure drama and actually is hokey and contrived as well as extremely boring and overlong. Avoid it.

Oh, I loved this movie! What a wonderful romance through the barriers of language! Marlee Matlin is wonderful, and William's singing is really good. Watch with someone you love and appreciate your relationship even more, also pay attention to the words and ways that Hurt looks at her, so romantic!

James Leeds (William Hurt) is the new speech therapist at a school for the deaf. He has limited signing skills and is intrigued by Sarah Norman (Marlee Matlin). She was the school's most promising student but she is now the school's janitor. He tries to teach her to speak but she rejects him. She is filled with anger but eventually she allows him into her world. It's the acting debut for Marlee Matlin and it's the first time I watched deaf acting. It was a revelation because she gives it so much emotions. She's doing acting like the old silent stars. It's amazing how visceral the fights become. It's a relatively simple romance but it's the signing that is so important. It broke down barriers at the time and literally gave cinema a new visual language.

When I saw this movie; Children of a Lesser God in 1986. I didn't watch in 1986, I watch later, like in the early 1990's to 2000. The movie itself has produced when I was not born. Naturally, u know obviously I'm a teenage. It is really unbelievable of how the first deaf female actor has won the awards, whom named Marlee Matlin. Myself, I already met Marlee Matlin in one of the deaf school in the United States. So when I watched the movie the actress, Marlee Matlin has struck me very hard, because it is hard to believe that Marlee has the led of opens to deaf world that kind of opportunity for all deaf people to access to turn to an actor or actress. Her acting in the Children of a Lesser God were surely very excellent and beautiful sign language. As all of people know that Sign Language is the most beautiful language of all language. Marlee Matlin has really show me that she work hard into the movie, it would be definitely hard to communication other actors. But she made it, that really show how courage she is. It was shocking that she took place for movies at one of the deaf school in the United States, probably in Chicago, Illinois. I could see other deaf actors and actress really involved in the movie and they act really outstanding. It is unbelievable explanation into the movie. I can tell that William Hurt; the actor who was interpreted the sign language from Marlee Matlin is a lot of work. He has to understand sign language and talk all the signs that Marlee has signed. I am sure that William Hurt would lost his mouth, when he talk a lot, I can't talk that long. I think it is wonderful that he does the work, it seems like he has a lot of respect to deaf community. It is really struck, when William Hurt tried to force Marlee Matlin to speak. I can understand of how deaf people, who has no idea how to talk, they will get forced to speak, they will be definitely like Marlee Matlin, they will be like speechless. I have that kind of feeling sometimes. Myself, I have watch it again and again, the movie really hits me bad, it is too good movie. I will say to this movie an rate between 1 to 10. I will give this movie an 10. I would like to watch it again, yo u all too..the movie really show how deaf people are like. Deaf people can do anything, except hear.

It is like what the title of this thread say. Only impression I got from that movie is that Marlee Matlin's character was always angry, so cynical, and so pathetic. Her character's first date with William Hurt's character where they were dancing were dumb. All in all, I've tried to finish watching the movie four times, and of all four times I fell asleep. I would keep watching that movie with one intention... to beat my problem with insomnia, because all it do is to put me to sleep. Sweet dream.

Yes, this is a love story about two unusually attractive people but its power comes from Hurt and Matlin's ability to increasingly convey vulnerability and authenticity as they fight to become completely real to each other. Marlee in particular is remarkable in her expressiveness. There is a scene where she watches Hurt while she's in an indoor swimming pool and you only see her eyes over the edge of the pool -- but the depth and variety of what "just those eyes" express! Because all of us intuitively know what they are going through as they strip away layer after layer -- who of us hasn't feared exposure of the person we feel the world shouldn't see? -- we are drawn into their revealing their secret selves because we wish we knew who OUR OWN secret self is. And the film is funny, engaging, touching, crazy and human!

This is one my favorite movies of all time. The quality of the acting leaves me breathless. The scene where Sarah is dancing slowly to a song by the Staples Singers says so much - the tempo is fast and most people were disco dancing or "stepping" to "I'll Take You There." Sarah feels the real underlying slow beat of the music and responds to that. It was a very moving scene. Piper Laurie as her mother was phenomenol. Her expressions and body language said so much more than her words. You could tell she really loved Sarah and was frustrated that she didn't really understand her. She also had a little bit of the "bury your head in the sand" approach to Sarah's deafness. Sarah was determined to have the world accept her on HER own terms and simply turned her back on it when it did not. Sarah was intelligent, beautiful and fun. She couldn't understand why people seemed to define and categorize her by her deafness. She was so much more than that and William Hurt's (I don't remember his name in the movie) character was sensitive enough to recognize that. His character was a little condescending and pushy, and I can see where he would get on any girl's nerves because he was not a good listener. He wanted Sarah to be the person he though she should be and justified it under his guise of "helping" her to cope in a hearing world. She was smart enough to figure him out and reject his attempt to mold her. You could feel Sarah's loneliness in her silent world and you knew that she wanted love, friends and happiness just like the rest of us, but didn't know if she would ever get them. I really loved the character and the whole movie. It gave us a brief glimpse into a deaf person's world through some extraordinary scenes: Sarah swimming and describing to William Hurt exactly how she imagined waves sounded, and getting it right; Marian Lesser communicating only in sign language at the party which gave William Hurt's character a chance to see things from another perspective. I think he learned that there is more than one standard way to live and enjoy life and being unable to hear isn't the worst thing that could happen to a person.

William Hurt, lean and handsome and focused, is forced to rely heavily on his frustrated good guy persona here, playing teacher at a school for the deaf who is appalled that a brilliant young deaf woman is also working at the school--but as a janitor. She's rebellious (and won't speak because of childhood traumas), he argues with her in sign language while speaking for himself and for her (for the audience's benefit), and they go around and around. It's like a deaf variation on "Two For the Seesaw". Marlee Matlin has a plum role here, and won a Best Actress Oscar, yet the arch of her character is rather dull--she's much more amazing at the beginning than at the end (she's softened, necessarily, by the film's built-in sentiment, but how far has she come? She still won't speak at the finale). The kids in Hurt's classroom are a fun, colorful bunch, and the picture has many romantic-but-edgy passages that keep it interesting, yet it's still quite tiring by the end. **1/2 from ****

If I'm watching a film about two unlikable people that the script is desperate to put together, you can forgive me for not being too enthusiastic. In Children Of A Lesser God there's a teacher called James with an 'unconventional' style of doing things (When are we going to see a NORMAL educator doing NORMAL things?) That 'SURPRISE SURPRISE' work on his unruly class. He's just started at a school for the deaf you see, and in true Dead Poet's Society style, is the only live wire in a sea of formality. This part of the movie, as derivative as it is, is at least interesting. Then we meet the love interest Sarah, played by Oscar winner Marlee Matlin. She's 25, a former student there who's stayed on as a cleaner. For some reason, James starts to unabashedly stalk her and won't take "NO" for an answer when propositioning her for a date. She eventually gives in (Perhaps to just shut him up) and 'SHOCK HORROR' her emotions turn from dislike to l'amour almost in the space of one dinner. Another thing to note about her is her DARK AND TROUBLED PAST which shows itself in random screaming fits that arise for no particular reason. Yeah, she's had it bad... But flying off the handle at the slightest indiscretion didn't endear her to me one bit. So, you have the creepy stalker teacher who's OH SO WILD & WACKY on one hand, and the unstable deaf girl who takes offense at virtually everything on the other. Am I supposed to root for these irritating boors? No dice. I'll say one thing for them, though... They TRULY belong together. 5/10