Movie Review: Sweet Nothing in My Ear

Sweet Nothing in My Ear is the Hallmark Hall of Fame movie on Sunday night. (Click on link for official synopsis and pictures and cast interviews). It featured Jeff Daniels, star of Dumb and Dumber (1994) and of Gettysburg (1993). It also had famous deaf actress Marlee Matlin.

The movie title is a nice play on words about deafness, because that is the main subject of the movie, but otherwise the title has nothing to do with the plot.

I must say I wouldn't have watched this if it didn't have to do with deafness. Even with the interesting subject, it did get overly weepy (not us, the actors).

It was excellent though as an basic overview of deaf culture, highlighting some things that Courtney told me. When a hearing person marries a deaf person, it is considered to be a mixed marriage. There is tremendous debate about whether deaf people should receive a cochlear implant, which involves drilling into the skull, and thus be able to hear. Being able to hear would cause the deaf person to lose his/her identity, but may also open up more opportunities. Many deaf people don't see themselves as being disabled, and they would prefer to stay as God naturally made them.

So basically, this movie touched upon all of these issues. The main plot was that the hearing father becomes convinced that his 8 year old son should receive a cochlear implant. The deaf mother is opposed, and so are her deaf parents. The kid has no opinion about it, because 8 year olds aren't usually thinking about big decisions. It eventually leads to their separation, and to a custody battle in the court room. They were happily in love apart from this disagreement. The father is probably going to win the case, but then before the judge's decision, he finally realizes that he'd rather be with his wife than get his way. The movie is not in chronological order, as the court room scene is inserted about 5 times throughout the movie, and in between they show how it got to that point.