FirstWitch A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

Suman Roberson It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.

Erica Derrick By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

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

brchthethird CHILDREN OF A LESSER GOD seemed like it would feel right at home on the Lifetime Network. There's nothing wrong with that, per se, except that those types of films tend to go for the easy emotional hook rather than dealing with harsher realities that might be more true to life. However, this film rises above that, to a degree, thanks to some good work by the reliable William Hurt and an eye-opening performance by deaf actress Marlee Matlin. Her presence was critical to making it work, and its success mostly rests on her shoulders.The story concerns a teacher, James Leeds (William Hurt), who is a new addition to the faculty at Kittredge School for the Deaf. He is an idealistic person with unconventional teaching methods who quickly earns the trust and admiration of his students. However an employee, Sarah (Marlee Matlin), and also a former student, proves more of a challenge. Despite her resistance to him trying to help, a romance blossoms between the two and sets the stage for a clash of wills.Aside from the outstanding performances (including a small, but affecting turn by Piper Laurie as Sarah's mother), one thing I thought was really well-done was the intimate moments of conflict between James and Sarah after the point in the story where they fall in love. Those dialogue exchanges were key to what I felt was the central struggle in the film. Nominally, it was about a man in love trying to get through to a deaf woman, but it can also be generalized to any relationship where communication can be difficult. Men and women often enter a relationship hoping that the other person will meet them on their own terms, but the reality is that it's best if they meet each other halfway. This is something I thought was beautifully explored in the film. I also enjoyed the many scenes where James interacts with his students, as these provided some comic relief.Still, not everything was so admirable. For one, I thought that the film took a rather patriarchal attitude towards women. Marlee Matlin, strong as her performance may have been, is still playing a strong-willed woman who finds herself in being with a man, just shy of being domesticated. At one point during the obligatory separation part of any romantic drama, she moves back in with her mother and gets a job, but doesn't find fulfillment in it. I understand that this film was made close to 30 years ago (and the play it was based on) so it's a product of its time, but things like that have a detrimental effect on how well a film ages. And with respect to its attitudes towards women, this film has not aged well in my opinion. They also took a rather pedestrian and cliché approach to the typical romantic elements of the story.Overall, this was a well-acted and (seemingly) well-meaning look at love in a unique relationship/circumstance. Some of the music was a little too on-the-nose, but generally was fitting. I also enjoyed the 80's pop songs they included in the soundtrack. What the film does best is explore the difficulties inherent in a relationship between a hearing and deaf person, which can be generalized to the difficulty in any relationship. Still, it's retrograde (at least, now) attitude towards women makes it a little lesser of a film than it could have been.

Rockwell_Cronenberg 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.

stephanlinsenhoff The stage play Children of a Lesser God, performed 1980 at Longacre Theater, New York, became 1986 a movie. Inspired by Roger Ebert ("Making a sound movie about the deaf is a little like making a silent movie about the blind.") I saw the movie without sound. The focus is deafness but the issue can easily be translated for disability in general. The usual approach by normality towards disability is the teaching of 'lip-reading'. The experts goal and task, encouraged by society: as normal as possible. William/James is applauded for his effort by his students and their parents. Excluded is the student Danny's silence and the screaming Sarahs refuse. Both see themselves as different and not an object in need to be rescued and cured, the reason for Williams/James salary. Williams/James and Marlee/Sarahs love-waterfall puts a special urge to the movies reason. It starts with Williams/James curiosity for the case of the deaf and furious cleaning woman Sarah. Soon it changes to his genuine interest and believe whatever he believes is good for her. She is satisfied to sweep the floor and clean the toilet.Changed to their love affair, she moving to his house. Fueled by their stubborn idea to help and fight against this help - leading to the scream (: "Here you go! Hear my words! Hear my voice! Ah, you want more than that? I'm gonna scream!") She runs away , runs to her mother, reconnecting with her. But their castled prison has crackled. In one scene we see her lip-reading in front of the mirror. And James/William: everybody in the room communicates soundless, him the outsider. One of the 'children of a lesser god', in love with a 'child of a better God'. How can this polarity come near. Meet. For a future together. Their first step is James/Williams questioning his experts and Marlee/Sarahs step towards the will for university. How will it be after the open-ending? The Swedish title Beyond All Words hints at a possibility. When everything is said and everything done and nothing left of the protecting 'armor'. Beyond the mirroring of false reality is a empty space of where truth is to be used.

itamarscomix Children of a Lesser God is worth watching, if for nothing else, for Marlee Matlin's star-making, Oscar-winning performance. She's really so good that she managed to draw me into the movie and enjoy it without noticing all the flaws and problems - those came rushing at me a couple of hours after finishing it.To be fair, even when Matlin isn't on screen, it's a beautiful movie, well-shot, well-made and very enjoyable, and very effective emotionally. But it uses every trick in the Hollywood book to manipulate the audience, while undermining its own flawed message at every turn.Front and center to all these problems is William Hurt's character. Despite Hurt's best efforts, James comes off as weak and inconsistent. When he's working as a speech teacher, he's shown to be charismatic and talented, playing up the full "Dead Poets' Society" prototype of the teacher with unorthodox methods who is disliked by the administration but loved by his students. And yet, whenever he's with Sarah (Matlin), he's weak-minded, babbling and insensitive.That serves to present him as condescending and irrational and make the viewer take Sarah's side on every argument, despite the fact that James, well, makes some pretty good points, and Sarah does her best to make things as complicated and melodramatic as possible at every turn, pick fights when there's no need for one, then back off at the last minute for no apparent reason. The whole thing feels like a rather cheap ploy to manipulate and guilt the viewer into taking he side he normally wouldn't; it also makes the romance between the two feel unconvincing and shallow from the very start. It's made worse by a sloppy ending, which makes us feel all warm inside while completely avoiding every issue raised throughout the movie.The only reason I'm ranting so much about the movie is that I enjoyed it. A movie that should have been good but has some very basic but major flaws is more annoying than a bad movie. Keeping all that in mind, though, I still recommend Children of a Lesser God as a beautiful, enjoyable drama, that tells an interesting story and is intriguing enough to actually provoke discussion.