It's funny watching the elements come together in this complicated scam. On one hand, the set-up isn't quite as complex as it seems, but there's an easy sense of fun in every exchange.

This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

The story-telling is good with flashbacks.The film is both funny and heartbreaking. You smile in a scene and get a soulcrushing revelation in the next.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

Children of a Lesser God (1986): Dir: Randa Haines / Cast: William Hurt, Marlee Matlin, Piper Laurie, Philip Bosco, Allison Gompf: Insightful yet overrated film about the physically limited and how God uses these limitation to make bigger things happen. It stars William Hurt who arrives to teach at a school for the deaf but is intrigued by a socially isolated female janitor. Directing debut for Randa Haines who explores the physical defects element as well as developing communication skills. Predictable narrative with Marlee Matlin giving a flawless performance in her frustration of being deaf and reluctance to communicate. Hurt is fantastic as a teacher struggling to communicate with her and obvious romance blooms. Piper Laurie plays Matlin's mother whom her daughter doesn't contact. Laurie's performance is the only supporting role worth the vision. Philip Bosco is given the standard role of principal whose job is to tell other teachers what to do then appear only when plot convenient. The students are written into useless subplots that present them as doing little more than occupying space. The strongest element regards the fascination with which these limitations become achievers with a chance future. The film isn't overly big on production and strives on its strong theme. The film's ambition is to aware everyone to the limitations and gifts of others. Score: 5 ½ / 10

"Children of lesser god" is an unique movie. It was the first film directed by a woman (Randa Haines) to be Oscar nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture. Marlee Matlin is the youngest ever winner of a Best Actress Oscar. Matlin is also one of only four actresses to win the Best Actress Oscar for a debut film performance. The movie is one if the few movies about people with hearing problems and deafness. The film was the first major motion picture since the 1926 silent film You'd Be Surprised to cast a deaf / hearing impaired actor in a major role. Marlee Matlin has only one spoken line in English during the entire film. The rest of her performance is in American Sign Language.The movie is based on critically acclaimed Broadway stage play that was very popular. The playwright Mark Medoff also wrote the screenplay for this movie. The film and source play's "Children of a Lesser God" title is derived from the twelfth chapter of Alfred Lord Tennysons "Idylls of the King" cycle of twelve narrative poems.The screenplay is both simple and complex. Hollywood is full of love stories where there isn't really no humor and the drama feels forced. Here it all feels real. It feels like real life. The characters are well written and the conflicts the face are completely natural and believable. It's interesting that the movie starts like one of those movies about inspiring teacher , but slowly turns into wonderful melodrama. There are many scenes involving Hurt's work with the deaf children and they are good , but it's the love story that counts the most. The screenplay rightfully deserved the Oscar nominee.The chemistry between Hurt and Matlin is brilliant. It's not strange , because they really felt in love with each other while making "COLG". They even lived together for few months after movie was finished and it's a sad thing that it didn't last. When you watch the movie you can see perhaps the most authentic romance I've ever seen in cinema.Marlee Matlin is spectacular in here. You could say it's a kind of cheat for deaf person to play def person. It doesn't change the fact that she is wonderful . I've never thought that a sound of hand clapping other hand might be chilling (watch the movie – you will know what scene I'm talking about). Matlin is able to say so much with her hands or face . The only time she speaks it's truly heartbreaking.William Hurt is in the shadow of Matlin , since he got the less interesting role. Still , he is great. He always was a master of subtlety and this movie is no exception. His character also changes and suffers during the movie. His also one of the best inspirational teachers in history of cinema.Piper Laurie has not too much screen time , but beautifully makes a complex character of Sarah's mother. In hands of less skilled actress it would be a cliché character and trivial performance . Laurie gives the audience a character who isn't black or white and quite possible the one they could relate to the most.The movie is very well directed by Randa Haines , which is surprising since it's her movie debut. Yet she never allows the movie to be too sentimental or manipulative with the viewer's emotions. The mix of humor and drama is perfect. The movie is also quite well photographed, the beauty of New Brunswick coast makes you wanna go there.Some people are complaining that the movie is too noisy for a film about deafness , that there aren't any scenes that use silence. I don't really see a need for that. The use of sign language feels natural here. The subtitles would be distracting in my opinion. The movie does justice to deaf people portraying them as real people with ambitions , passions and desires , not like poor cripples.This is a beautiful movie about acceptance , finding yourself and emotional growth. This is what love should be. Find out if the world of sound and world of silence can meet. I give it 9/10.

Marlee Matlin has been fending for the record of being the youngest BEST ACTRESS winner in Oscar's history for 26 years now (at the age of 21), which is rehashed by this year's Jennifer Lawrence's winning (at the age of 22), a closest challenger ever. What intrigues me is how Academy would grant its top honor to such a youngster? I reckon she must play a role older than her real age (as Lawrence did in SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK 2012, 7/10) apart from her differing ability. And my guess is right, it is a meaty role would elicit an actress' all-out capacity to catch the attention and empathy from beholders, plus Matlin is gorgeously beautiful in person, from an anger-ridden minimal-wager earner to a feisty woman yearning for independence and not pandering for her lover's conventional salvation, a deaf woman's own silent world is her own powerhouse, arms her with determination and self-confidence. The film is directed by female director Randa Haines and adapted from Mark Medoff's Broadway play, a touch of sentimentality is abiding throughout, goes with the saccharine score by Michael Convertino. The other half of the film is William Hurt, the sensual leading man of 1980s' Hollywoodland, he is a speech teacher for deaf children and is besotted with Matlin's eccentricities, he is not a flawless romantic prince, he can rescue her from mundane chores but his insistence of her to speak (in spite of her deafness) denotes a generalized point of view of patronizing the impaired, trying to change them to cater for the life the society designs while being blind to their real needs, aka, he can never enter into her silence, a message being clearly disseminated during their altercation. Hurt is also admirable in learning all the sign languages in the film (by comparison, Piper Laurie as Matlin's mother, is barely trying to do so for communication, not Laurie's fault though since it reflects pitch perfect how their relationship is, and Laurie earned a surprising third Oscar nomination despite of her character's sparing screen time), and the chemistry between him and Matlin makes wonder, how one can forget the aesthetically stunning underwater shots when they accept each other in the swimming pool for the very first time. One distinguished feature is there is no dubbing of sign languages in the films, instead they are all interpreted by the recipients by words, so for the majority who don't learn sign languages, what we are able to understand is the secondary information reiterated by another person (mainly Hurt in this case), which in a way bars our immediate perception and we also feel frustrated inasmuch as the language barrier is too obvious to overcome. The happy ending may not be an overused cliché as that time, but watching it in the year of 2013, it alleviates the gravitas of the kernel, it is more like a mismatched pair than a happy-ever-after fairytale, one can imagine their future would still be choppy because independence takes no middle ground in its process, in any rate, the film could only be referred as in its half way of being great.

For its first hour, the cleverly titled "Children of a Lesser God" is a strong drama. It stars William Hurt as a maverick teacher at a school for the hearing impaired. He falls in love with a character played by Marlee Matlin, a young woman with a severe inferiority complex wrought by abuses faced as a deaf child. Hurt tries to teach Matlin sign language, but she's stubborn and refuses; she associates sign, and the world of speech itself, with all those who've wronged her.This is where the film becomes most interesting. Hurt and Matlin essentially engage in a sadomasochistic language game, both attempting to have their subjectivity, and language, affirmed as universal truth. "You want to talk to me, then you learn my language!" Hurt demands, but Matlin refuses. She will not let anyone define or force themselves upon her. "Talk to me!" Hurt insists, but Matlin remains mute. Eventually she learns that her language of silence is, or can be, equally a form of hate. The two then reconcile and find a common middle ground between sound and silence, though ultimately alienation, solitude and an inability to fully communicate are presented as being intrinsic to the love experience.Wonderfully acted, and filled with lovely autumnal shots of New England, "Children of a Lesser God" works well until its last hour. Here things get increasingly formulaic, and director Randa Haines rolls out a series of clichéd, heavy-handed domestic disputes.In addition to being the first female-directed film nominated for Best Picture, "Children" featured the first significant use of ASL (American Sign Language) in a mainstream Hollywood film, as well as a supporting cast of young actors and actresses who were actually deaf. Star Marlee Matlin became the youngest ever actress (and the first deaf person) to win a Best Actress Oscar.8/10 – Interesting material turns cloying. Worth one viewing.