--- title: "Children of a Lesser God" year: 1986 kind: "film" canonical: "https://film.one/film/children-of-a-lesser-god" fi1m_score: 66 critics_score: 66 critics_reviews: 5 published: "2026-09-20T06:44:55.762387+00:00" updated: "2026-09-20T06:45:23.035851+00:00" region: "US" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Children of a Lesser God (1986) Directed by Randa Haines · 1h 59m · MPA R · Drama, Romance **Fi1m score: 66** · Critics 66 (early) from 5 reviews *In a sentence:* A love story in two languages, only one of which the film trusts us with > Randa Haines’s film of Mark Medoff’s play is well made and well acted, and Marlee Matlin is the reason to see it. But it has William Hurt speak aloud every line she signs, so we never once meet her on her own terms. ## Synopsis James Leeds (William Hurt), a speech teacher with methods of his own, arrives at a residential school for the deaf on a cold stretch of coast. The head, Dr. Curtis Franklin (Philip Bosco), is sceptical; the pupils, among them Lydia (Allison Gompf) and Johnny (John F. Cleary), come round once he turns the music up loud enough to feel through the floor. Then he meets Sarah Norman (Marlee Matlin), a former pupil who stayed on as a cleaner and will not speak, read lips or have anything to do with him. James wants to teach her; Sarah wants to be left alone. He takes her to dinner, finds her swimming alone in the school pool at night, and drives out to see the mother, Mrs. Norman (Piper Laurie), she has not spoken to in years. ## Review James Leeds (William Hurt) arrives at a residential school for the deaf to teach speech, and finds a headmaster who would rather he did it quietly. Sarah Norman (Marlee Matlin) was a pupil here and stayed on as a cleaner. She signs, fast and without apology, and she will not speak or read lips, because she did both as a child and was laughed at for it. He decides she is a project. Randa Haines’s film of Mark Medoff’s play, adapted by Medoff and Hesper Anderson, is a love story about two people who cannot agree on what a conversation is. It is well made and well acted, and it is built on one decision that keeps it from being better than good. Matlin first. She plays Sarah with her whole upper body: a shrug that is a sentence, a flat hand that is a door shut in his face. When she has finished with James she turns her back, and the scene is over whether he likes it or not. At dinner, asked why she will not learn to speak, she tells him she does not do things she cannot do well, and Matlin lets us see that this is true and also a wall. It is a performance of refusal that never once looks like sulking. We had expected to admire it; we had not expected to want to be on her side against the film. Because the film is on his. On stage, James voicing Sarah’s signs was a necessity. Here it is a choice, and Haines makes it in every scene: Hurt repeats aloud what Sarah has just said, then answers it, so both halves of every argument arrive in his voice. Sarah’s words reach us already translated, in the mouth of the man who wants to change her. We noticed it in the first ten minutes; by the hour mark it had begun to irritate us, and then to look like the film’s real subject, one the film had not noticed it had. Hurt is good, all the same. He does the classroom charm and the jokes to win the class, and under them a teacher’s habit of not hearing the answer he did not want. John Seale shoots the school in grey coastal light, brick and long corridors and the sea at the end of every road, and he gives the water the film’s few moments of quiet. Sarah swimming alone in the pool at night is the one time we are left with her and nobody explaining. Gene Callahan’s school is old, over-heated and slightly shabby, a place where nothing has been changed since the parents last visited. Renée April keeps Sarah in dark work clothes for most of the first hour, so that when she dresses for dinner we notice. Michael Convertino’s score is soft and insistent and tells us to feel what Matlin has already made us feel. Lisa Fruchtman cuts the classroom scenes briskly and lets the two-handers run, which is right. The classroom is where the film is happiest. James teaches speech by turning the music up until the pupils can feel it in the floor, and Allison Gompf’s Lydia, who has a crush on him and works at her vowels as if her life depended on it, is the warmest thing in the picture. Philip Bosco’s Dr. Curtis Franklin runs the school on the principle that nobody should make a fuss and is wearily unsurprised when somebody does. Piper Laurie has one long scene as Mrs. Norman, the mother Sarah has not seen in years, and plays it as hospitality with the heating off. What the film lacks is a second argument. He wants her to speak; she will not; he tries again. The play had the same shape, and on stage the repetition is the drama. On screen, at 119 minutes, we began to feel we were watching the same quarrel in different rooms, and the second half, which takes a turn we will not describe, raises the volume rather than the stakes. It is still worth an evening, and Matlin is worth two. Watch it with someone who will argue afterwards about whether James is patient or a bully, because the film thinks he is patient and is not entirely sure. It carries a 15 certificate and opened in British cinemas on 27 February 1987. *Fi1m score 66, published 20 September 2026.* ## What the critics say With only five reviews in so far, the critics lean positive, and the praise gathers around the two leads: most find Hurt and the newcomer Matlin persuasive together, and several credit the film with steering clear of a sob story or an issue-driven tale. The reservations come from the more sceptical end. RogerEbert.com calls it competent but predictable and says it stays with the hearing character’s view rather than the deaf woman’s, while The New York Times goes further, finding a slick, efficient adaptation that offers no surprises and leaves the characters’ inner lives unexplored. The spread is wide for so few reviews, from warm to dismissive. ### Reviews we read (5) - **Los Angeles Times**, Kevin Thomas (85/100, inferred): Haines delivers an exceptionally adroit screen adaptation that flows beautifully with humor, dramatic intensity, and a classic romantic love story heightened by the challenges of deafness. Thomas highlights the film's understanding of psychology in close relationships between hearing and hard-of-hearing people. [Read](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1986-10-03-ca-3867-story.html) - **Variety**, Variety Staff (80/100, inferred): The film avoids sentimentality traps by focusing on a touching universal love story between a deaf woman and a hearing man. The palpable chemistry and performances by Hurt and newcomer Matlin are singled out as strengths. [Read](https://variety.com/1985/film/reviews/children-of-a-lesser-god-1200426963/) - **Time Out** (70/100, inferred): The film adapts the stage hit into a touching love story that also glosses the barriers of language while highlighting unintentional slights towards the deaf. It succeeds without becoming either a simple sob story or an issue-driven tale. [Read](https://www.timeout.com/movies/children-of-a-lesser-god) - **RogerEbert.com**, Roger Ebert (65/100, inferred): The film is a competent but predictable love story that fails to fully immerse viewers in the deaf experience by favoring the hearing character's perspective throughout. Ebert praises the strong performances, especially by William Hurt and debut actress Marlee Matlin. [Read](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/children-of-a-lesser-god-1986) - **The New York Times**, Vincent Canby (30/100, inferred): The slick adaptation of the play offers no surprises or genuine discoveries, relying on familiar emotional cues and Broadway-style dialogue. Canby criticizes its programmed efficiency and limitations in exploring the characters' inner lives. [Read](https://www.nytimes.com/1986/10/03/movies/screen-an-adaption-children-of-lesser-god.html) ## Details - **Director:** Randa Haines - **Director:** Randa Haines - **Screenplay:** Mark Medoff, Hesper Anderson - **Cinematography:** John Seale - **Editor:** Lisa Fruchtman - **Music:** Michael Convertino - **Production design:** Gene Callahan - **Costume design:** Renée April - **Producer:** Burt Sugarman, Patrick J. Palmer - **Cast:** William Hurt as James Leeds; Marlee Matlin as Sarah Norman; Piper Laurie as Mrs. Norman; Philip Bosco as Dr. Curtis Franklin; Allison Gompf as Lydia; John F. Cleary as Johnny; Philip Holmes as Glen; Georgia Ann Cline as Cheryl - **Runtime:** 1h 59m - **Certificate (MPA):** R - **Release (the US):** 3 October 1986 - **Genres:** Drama, Romance - **Also in:** [Best Picture winners](https://film.one/collections/oscar-best-picture.md) (Nominee, 1986); [Golden Globe Best Drama winners](https://film.one/collections/golden-globe-drama.md) (Nominee, 1986) - **Box office:** $32 million - **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0AMKG31wME ## Where to watch in the US - Pluto TV: free - Amazon Prime Video: rent $3.99, hd - Amazon Prime Video: buy $12.99, hd *Checked 2026-09-20.* Also available in: AT, BE, BG, BR, CA, CH, CL, CZ, DE, DK, ES, FI, FR, GB, HU, IE, IN, IT, LT, MX, NL, NO, PT, RO, RS, SE, TR, US. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## Awards - Academy Awards 1987: Best Actor (nominated); Best Picture (nominated); Best Supporting Actress (nominated); Best Writing, Adapted Screenplay (nominated); Best Actress (won) ## If you liked this - *The Tribe* (2014): Ukrainian, entirely in sign, no subtitles; the film Sarah might have preferred. - *Sound of Metal* (2019), Fi1m 81: A drummer loses his hearing; the sound design does the work Hurt’s voice does here. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/sound-of-metal.md) - *The Miracle Worker* (1962): Anne Bancroft and Patty Duke fight it out over language; the dining-room scene still bruises. - *La Famille Bélier* (2014): The hearing daughter of deaf parents wants to sing; warmer and less solemn than this. - *Johnny Belinda* (1948), Fi1m 78: Jane Wyman as a deaf woman in a Nova Scotia fishing village; older, and surprisingly tough. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/johnny-belinda.md) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/children-of-a-lesser-god