Children of a Lesser God (1986)

An Exercise In Nonsense

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

This is a film that really needed to be made, giving the "hearing" population a glimpse into not only the physical world of deaf and hard-of-hearing persons, but their emotional world, as well. This is not to imply that all hearing-impaired persons react identically, nor even similarly, to their limitation, but, as we see in the film, the conditions of the person's life, both inner and outer, are significantly altered by the deprivation of this sense.An important aspect of deafness is addressed in Children of a Lesser God: That of the psychological/emotional impact of those who verbally and physically abuse and neglect hearing-impaired persons. We see Sarah (and some current students) locked int their own world, to varying extents, refusing to communicate or even try. Sarah explains her avoidance and hostility at one point, describing childhood scenes when she was mocked and derided by her "hearing" peers.Her courage (and the very fire that breeds her hostility) enables and impels her to communicate (in no uncertain terms). Other, current students of the school are not so brave nor lucky: Some refuse to communicate even by sign language, and we can easily assume that this avoidant behavior is the direct result of not the disability, but the resultant abuse (including condescention) and neglect from family, "friends" and other members of society. Marlee Martin does an incredible job of acting, communicating her thoughts and feelings with just a look. If only the director had given John Leeds the responsiveness to be able to interpret Sarah's messages in her eyes, body language, etc., then the film could have been even better.Instead, Leeds often stands dumbfounded, not particularly intuitive, nor deep, nor complex. It is this deeper level of engagement that is missing from Hurt's acting, and from the script, in-general.When Leeds asks Sarah, "Who are you?", after having known her for quite some time, it is his own failure and shallowness that is illuminated. Sarah makes every effort to reveal as much of herself as she can. I am not certain that William Hurt had the chops for this role. One scene I wish had been done differently: That scene when John and Sarah are at his home, and he lays down to listen to some classical music: His relentless tension, deeply-ingrained rigidity and seriousness prevent him from allowing him to enjoy both Sarah's company, and the music, at the same time.He is completely at a loss of how to communicate anything of the music to her. He should have shown her the sheet music, and somehow illustrated the music, pointing to the notes and rests, revealing the flow (tempo) of it to her as it plays. This man seems frozen in some sort of selfishness and convention (even though he's been to all of the best schools).I commend the acting of the students of the school. If these persons are, in-fact, hearing-impaired, then it took great courage to break past the fears and antipathies that separate the "hearing" persons from those who have a hearing impairment. The direction was done in a manner that the dignity of all was maintained. Even the principal was shown to not be a monster of rigidity, and I appreciate the director's stepping outside of the standard formula in this regard.Children of a Lesser God is an important movie. The movies I consider important, I can count on both hands. If you want to broaden your world, watch it.

This is far from a perfect movie, but it's a really beautiful movie that manages evoke a lot of emotion out of you. My main advice for you is to be patient. It's deliberately slow-paced, but if you stick with it, you'll be rewarded with a great experience. I've never encountered a deaf person before, and I'm not really that knowledgeable about them. I'm even ashamed to admit that I don't know any sign language. I do know that they are difficult to handle, but they are still people, and you should treat them as such. The incredible performances are one of the main reasons why I liked this movie. Marlee Matlin deserved her Oscar. She's deaf in real life, but it was still an extremely impressive performance. She had some very intense scenes with William Hurt. Speaking of Hurt, he was phenomenal as well. His brash and ambitious methods were fun to watch. Piper Laurie is really good. I usually hate her method style of acting, but she was thankfully restrained here. Good stuff!This is a moving film. It has its flaws, but it will leave you thinking for a while after it's over. See it if you can!7.8/10

Children of a Lesser God is the kind of thing that the Academy Awards go for in spades; uplifting story about a socially relevant issue with the typical rise-fall-rise structure all built around a romance between two attractive leads. It's fluff (he's a school teacher for deaf kids) that only occasionally dips into the wealth of importance that it's themes consist of, but with all of that being said I still didn't mind it too much. It panders a lot, the whole structure of having William Hurt verbally speak every piece of dialogue that him and Marlee Matlin were signing to each other in order for the audience to understand got pretty distracting, but it was still a relatively easy viewing with some fine acting.Matlin won an Oscar for her role, which makes sense, but the character was too much of a type for me and rigidly stayed in that location of "I'm a deaf girl and I hate you because you pity me even though you don't but I hate the world" for pretty much the entire thing and I always have a problem with characters like that. She was impressive in her breakdown scene, but otherwise I wasn't too high on the performance. Piper Laurie got a Supporting Actress nomination for her performance as Matlin's mother, which makes absolutely no sense since she didn't do anything.The only one who left much of an impression on me was Hurt, which isn't very surprising since I think he's one of the best actors we've ever had. His portrayal is instantly likable and the film is at it's most engaging whenever he's on screen, but the real treat is the later scenes where he's able to bring much more depth and humanity to his character. This is a role that could have easily been the charming and morally righteous savior for the deaf janitor and kids, but instead Hurt is able to turn him (along with the script) into a fleshed-out character with his own share of flaws. I can't say that I hated the movie, despite it's several shortcomings, but it's definitely not something I'm going to remember at all.

Children of a Lesser God is a sensitive love story about James, a speech teacher who moves to a new deaf school and falls for introverted Sarah, a former student who decided to stay in the school because she can't relate with people.This movie is basically a story about overcoming the difficulties of communication between two people, but it's never that simple since Sarah has one of the strongest and most defensive personalities ever seen in a movie.As a deaf person, Sarah decided to rely on sex to gain men's affections and so can't commit to a meaningful relationship. She also fears James will treat her like everyone else always has. It's up to him to prove her wrong.William Hurt and Marlee Matlin are both perfect in this movie. The '80s were a great decade for Hurt, and he was already riding on the success of his previous Oscar victory. One could only expect a great performance from him. It's Matlin who's the revelation here, conveying her personality through body language and sign language. She proved that acting has nothing to do with words and deserve the Oscar for this performance.This movie is slow, sometimes dull, but for those with patience, it'll be quite rewarding on an emotional level.