Children of a Lesser God

Children of a Lesser God is one of those movies that has floated around in my mind for a while now, not so much because I knew anything about it but because I thought it was an intriguing title. Children of a lesser god. The phrase has such gravitas to it – what could that mean? Upon doing some research (by which I mean browsing Wikipedia), I learned that the phrase is inspired by these lines from Tennyson’s Idylls of the King.

O me! for why is all around us here
As if some lesser god had made the world,
But had not force to shape it as he would,

I haven’t read much of the Idylls, but, as a fan of some of Tennyon’s other work (“Ulysses” and “The Charge of the Light Brigade” immediately jump to mind), I’m happy to say that Children of a Lesser God mostly lives up to its titular inspiration. The film centers around James Leeds (William Hurt), the new speech teacher at a school for the deaf, and Sarah Norman (Marlee Matlin), a former graduate of and now janitor at the school. As James dives into teaching, he encounters Sarah cleaning the school and sets out on a mission to encourage Sarah to speak in addition to signing. Sarah vehemently opposes these attempts. Naturally, the two begin a romantic relationship before too long. Sarah’s troubled past and James’s incessant speech mission cause their relationship to ebb and flow over the course of the movie and drive the plot toward its eventual resolution.

It almost goes without saying, but perhaps the most conspicuous aspect of Children is the prevalence of deaf characters on screen, particularly deaf characters who do not speak much. Because most of the film’s audience does not understand signing, this presents a challenge in conveying meaning to the audience. Rather than relying on an obvious solution such as subtitles, Children adapts the method of having James translate as part of his lines. Instead of silence while a character is signing, we instead hear James speaking a translation aloud, as if to himself. Here’s a quick example on Youtube.
This technique results in William Hurt speaking a huge percentage of the dialogue in the movie and leaves many scenes in which his voice is the only one heard. In the hands of a lesser actor, this may have ended poorly. However, Hurt is not a lesser actor and even garnered a Best Actor Oscar nomination for this performance. He is able to speak with himself in such a way that this type of conversation feels natural and the fact that he alone is uttering words fades into the background. It’s quite remarkable.
That said, Marlee Matlin’s performance is also crucial to the success of this technique. While Hurt was nominated for Best Actor, Matlin actually won the Oscar for Best Actress and for good reason. Despite the paucity of her verbal lines, Matlin is able to bring such intensity and passion to her character that her silence fades into the background (into silence?). The physical expressiveness of Matlin’s signing and acting is delightful and nearly renders the running translation unnecessary. From her first moment on screen, Matlin captivates.
Children of a Lesser God isn’t without its flaws. A good romantic drama must carefully tread the line between passion and over the top excess. Here, on occasion, Children simply falls off the deep end. One scene in particular that stands out involves James happening upon Sarah swimming in the school pool. In the midst of their intimate conversation, James exclaims, “Sarah, Sarah, I am falling into the pool with you” as he launches himself into the pool and begins a strange underwater love scene set to vaguely mystical music.
All in all, though, I did enjoy Children of a Lesser God. Its novel method of expressing the words characters cannot speak, the acting prowess of Matlin and Hurt, and its portrayal of the life and struggles of a deaf woman make it well worth a couple of hours of your time.