YouHeart I gave it a 7.5 out of 10

Pluskylang Great Film overall

Odelecol Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

Quiet Muffin This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

Python Hyena 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

callanvass 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

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.

Michael Neumann Boy meets girl; boy (unfairly) loses girl; and after assorted trials and tribulations the two are blissfully reunited. The standard romantic formula hasn't changed, but here it benefits from a unique perspective: he can hear, she can't. William Hurt is the overconfident teacher of deaf students trying to convince Marlee Matlin (against her better judgment) that silence isn't golden, and the tensions of attraction between them make for an often absorbing romantic drama. Oddly enough the film, so otherwise sympathetic to the needs of the hearing impaired, is top heavy with verbal rather than visual expression. Notable exceptions (disregarding the obvious aquatic sex sequence: only in a movie can people undress with such ease and grace underwater) include the scene in which Hurt becomes the odd man out at a party conducted in sign language, and a later moment when he unwinds to the music of Bach while Matlin site alone and oblivious in the background. Considering the logistical problems of the scenario (for example how to communicate to an uneducated audience a conversation held entirely in sign language) the film is nevertheless an uncomplicated tearjerker that hides its stage origins well. The partially deaf Matlin is impressive in her debut, while Hurt performs like an actor self-consciously aware of the camera's presence, affecting an artificial naturalness which he drops only during the more fiery lover's quarrels, when the couple shows just how passionate and expressive hands and faces can be.