Movie Review: Children of a Lesser God (1986)

I'm enjoying using my blog to be more personal, or to reveal my inner soul a bit more. But more on that later...movie review first.

This movie lost out to Platoon for Best Picture, but was nominated in 1986.

I feel like my reviews need to do a better job of introducing the characters.  I'm usually doing too much at once, naming the actor, describing the character, etc.  So if I describe them at the beginning, I can use their names in the remainder of the review.

Setting - a deaf boarding school in a maritime setting (Northeast)
James Leeds - a teacher who arrives from somewhere. He is hearing, and has a passion for helping deaf kids to speak.   Acted by William Hurt
Sarah Norman - a deaf former student who refuses to speak, and is an angry person, and is the school janitor.  Enjoys swimming naked in the school pool, for unexplained reasons.  Acted by Marlee Matlin.  Winner of Academy Award for Best Actress.

Plot synopsis:
James is attracted to Sarah.  He tries to help her to speak.  She does not want to speak.  He won't stop bugging her, and asks her to dinner.  She dances sensually to the music that she can feel, but not hear. She gets mad at him.  He keeps prying, and she tells him that as a youth she had sex better than hearing girls, and she was sexually abused by the neighborhood boys, somewhat willingly since she found some identity in it.   He intrudes on her when she's swimming naked, and has sex with her.  (Did he not just hear that part about how men used her? But I think it's supposed to be romantic maybe?)  Then she lives with him, and they are incompatible, and fight a lot because he keeps wanting her to talk (give it up already, she doesn't want to).  Then they separate.  Then they get back together, and will doubtless continue to have problems.  She does not speak.

Review:
I like seeing sign language.  Thankfully, James repeated everything Sarah said out loud. That is probably not normal, but just for the benefit of most viewers.  I think Marlee Matlin did a great job of acting.  I think even for a non-religious person though, it would be strange to live with someone, having never been on the same page about basic beliefs, and having never resolved anger issues.  So the whole thing seemed just hypothetical to me, not real at all.  The music was weird.  And the movie did not offer much in terms of scenery or effects - it was just dramatic acting, which is probably my least favorite type of movie.  But the sign language/deaf/HOH topic is still interesting to me.