Children of a Lesser God

Name: Children of a Lesser God
Genre: Drama, Romance
Released: October 3, 1986
Duration: 119 min
Rating: 80
Cast: Allison Gompf, Frank Carter Jr., Georgia Ann Cline, John F. Cleary, Marlee Matlin

1986

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Generally favorable reviews based on 13 Critics

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Children Of A Lesser God: Learn To Speak

Movie Details & Credits

Paramount Pictures | Release Date: October 3, 1986

Starring: Allison Gompf, Frank Carter Jr., Georgia Ann Cline, John F. Cleary, Marlee Matlin, Philip Bosco, Philip Holmes, Piper Laurie, William D. Byrd, William Hurt

Summary: A new speech teacher (William Hurt) at a school for the deaf falls in love with the janitor, a deaf woman (Marlee Matlin) speechless by choice.

Director: Randa Haines

Genre(s): Drama, Romance

Rating: R

Runtime: 119 min

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Critic Reviews

100

Los Angeles Times - Kevin Thomas

An exceptionally adroit adaptation of a play to the screen. As a film, it flows beautifully under Randa Haines' direction and has considerable humor as well as dramatic intensity. It is a classic love story--romantic, passionate, involving vibrant characters. Read full review

100

The Associated Press - Bob Thomas

In terms of human understanding, the film is worth dozens of documentaries on deafness. [10 Dec 1986]

100

Newsweek - Jack Kroll

Matlin's performance in her first major role in her first movie is so good -- sensitive, sharp, funny -- that she's likely to be the first deaf actress to get an Oscar nomination. [20 Oct 1986, p.77]

Time - Richard Schickel

[Matlin] has an unusual talent for concentrating her emotions--and an audience's--in her signing. But there is something more here, an ironic intelligence, a fierce but not distancing wit, that the movies, with their famous ability to photograph thought, discover in very few performances. Children of a Lesser God, though given a handsome openness in Director Haines' production, cannot transcend the banalities of the play. But Matlin does. She is, one might say, a miracle worker. Read full review

TV Guide Magazine - Staff (Not Credited)

Despite this flaw, several dramatic lulls, and an aggressive determination to "sparkle," the film often makes for crackling good drama with plenty of leavening humor and magnificent performances by Hurt and newcomer Matlin. Read full review

Time Out - Staff (Not Credited)

Their relationship is both a genuinely touching love story and a clever gloss on the barriers and extensions of language. It also contains a truly didactic other-dimension which points out some very salutary things about our often unintentional slights towards the deaf, without being either a simple sob or an issue story. Read full review

Miami Herald - Christine Arnold

Something happened to Mark Medoff's moving Children of a Lesser God in its translation from stage to screen: Somebody turned it into a soft-focus Hallmark card about deaf people. [3 Oct 1986, p.D1]

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