I was totally surprised at how great this film.You could feel your paranoia rise as the film went on and as you gradually learned the details of the real situation.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Yes, absolutely, there is fun to be had, as well as many, many things to go boom, all amid an atmospheric urban jungle.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

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.

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

The four main characters of Children of a Lesser God include James Leeds, Sarah Norman, Dr. Franklin, and Sarah's mother. The main characters of the film represent competing viewpoints of how Deafness is viewed by the public.James, portrayed by actor William Hurt, is an impassioned speech teacher at the school for the Deaf. He is creative in the classroom, a visionary, and an innovator who thinks outside the box. James has had a long string of short-term jobs which suggest to me that his head-in-the- clouds idealism clashed with the more pragmatic views held by previous administrators. To me, James represents my Deaf ed cohorts and me who maybe sometimes romanticize the field of education and our students and risk falling into the trap of appearing to be paternalistic towards our students despite our best intentions. Our hearts are in the right place, but sometimes we need to have our bubbles burst and brought back to reality.Sarah Norman, portrayed by Marlee Matlin (who is Deaf in real life), is a former student of the school where she now works as a custodian, despite her intellectual gifts. To me, Sarah represents the Deaf culture at large in that they're sometimes misunderstood by the hearing world. Sarah comes across as rebellious and angry, yet in actuality, she is hurt by the humiliation and isolation she has suffered at the hands of a few ignorant hearing people.Dr. Franklin, played by Philip Bosco, is the administrator of the school. He represents the "old-school" mentality of a practical and realistic education for the Deaf. In his eyes, Sarah is successful in that she has a job and is paying taxes. This is not to say that Dr. Franklin is a villain. He obviously cares about his students; he just doesn't see them as equals to hearing people. To give an example of his mindset, note how he contrasts his philosophy to that of James'. Dr. Frankin talking to James: "I'm sure you do have a lot of energy and a lot of new ideas. I did too when...But nobody's trying to change the world around here. Just trying to help a few deaf kids get along a little better. But that's all. Everything else is razzle-dazzle. Am I making myself clear?" Actress Piper Laurie plays Sarah's mother. She represents the families of Deaf children who struggle to put away their feelings of loss and disappointment after having a "disabled" child. Since Sarah's mother never learned to sign fluently, the miscommunication and misunderstandings between mother and child were inevitable.Four scenes come to mind when considering cultural and social dynamics of the movie Children of a Lesser God. One scene that points to the isolation sometimes felt by Deaf people in a hearing world was the dinner party where James is in the minority because the party goers are all Deaf or hearing people heavily involved in the Deaf community. Even though James is a user of sign language, his fluency is an issue and the participants are employing American Sign Language. His discomfort and feelings of exclusion are palpable. What is telling is that I don't believe James realized that the emotions he was feeling were the same feelings that kept Sarah from venturing into the world outside the school for the Deaf.Another scene that struck me was when James and Sarah were at a restaurant dancing as they communicated through sign language. There was another couple dancing nearby who couldn't keep their eyes off James and Sarah. The look on the couple's faces wasn't that of curiosity or fascination, but of morbid curiosity. It reminded me of people who rudely stare at amputees or those with physical "deformities."A third scene that pointed to the cultural and social dynamics between the hearing and Deaf worlds is when James brought Sarah to a poker party hosted by his hearing colleagues. Sarah had taken it upon herself to learn the rules of poker in order to fit in. Among his friends, James got all the credit for "training" her. Sarah caught on at the end of the party and was understandably hurt and annoyed by being likened to a trained dog.The fourth scene that called attention to the gulf between the hearing and Deaf worlds was when Sarah asked James to explain what music sounded like. He tried, but couldn't find the signs or even the words to explain the emotional power of music to a Deaf person. James' frustration at Sarah for not being able to hear the sounds he loved and Sarah's frustration for not being able to share in James' love of music created a fissure in the burgeoning relationship of the Deaf-Hearing couple.The main theme of the movie Children of a Lesser God is that love, good intentions, or government regulations can't easily bridge the abyss separating two cultures divided by history, maltreatment, and exploitation of the minority culture by the majority. You notice I said intervention can't easily bridge the gap. All of these things – love, good intentions, government involvement – can and have improved the lives of Deaf people and other disadvantaged groups, but it has taken time. The movie is about two ordinary people trying to overcome suspicion, bitterness, misunderstanding, and cultural missteps in order to find a common ground to explore their love. As James asked Sarah: "Do you think there's someplace where we can meet that's not in silence and not in sound?" This film remains one of my favorite movies and was the inspiration for my choice of avocation. Although some conventions that the movie uses, such as William Hurt orally interpreting Marlee Matlin's signs during private conversations, are sometimes grating, it is better than using subtitles. The movie is a good starting point for hearing individuals to develop an understanding of the complex hurdles that Deaf people must overcome.

Randa Haines 'Children of a Lesser God' is a Complex story, told in a mature manner. What also stands tall in this rather unique love-story, are it's performances by it's lead stars.'Children Of A Lesser God' tells the story of a speech teacher at a school for deaf students, who falls in love with a deaf woman who also works there.Though a love-story without any response half the time, this romantic-drama packs in some truly heartfelt moments. The writing in the first hour is superb. But dips in the second hour for a while, but a mature & real culmination makes up for it. Randa Haines understands this human story with maturity and her direction is perfect. Cinematography is good, so is the Editing.Now to the performances! 'Children Of A Lesser God' would've been soul-less if not for it's performances. Marlee Matlin is Stunning in her Oscar & Golden-Globe-Winning Performance. She speaks through her eyes, and conveys all the emotions inside her. William Hurt is restrained all through. Piper Laurie is first-rate and leaves a strong impression. Philip Bosco is good.On the whole, 'Children Of A Lesser God' is A Good Watch, without a shed of doubt. If it had a better second hour, I would have given this story a proper 9 on 10, nonetheless, I had an experience worth reviewing.