Never heard about Children of a Lesser God until a few days ago, when I came across it mentioned in a list of eighties drama's worth checking out. I love the title. I'm sure I've heard it before somewhere, but it speaks volumes. Checked out the cast and as soon as I read Marlee Matlin I knew I was gonna watch this soon.
I've mention on my TV-blog about The West Wing's first season and quite possibly about watching the entire show more than once. I've always been impressed by Matlin's 'Joey Lucas' there. She's acting with so much attitude it's quite unresistible. Early in this movie we'll see Matlin in her film debut portraying much of the same attitude. And what a debut. She got the Oscar for 'Best Leading Actress' for her 'Sarah Norman', and I've read somewhere she's the youngest ever to achieve that as she was only 21 years old at the time.
It's no doubt a story worth telling and William Hurt and Matlin does well portraying the leads, but I'm still left feeling they didn't manage to reach its potential. It's based on the Broadway production with the same title, screenplay written by Mark Medoff who also produced the Broadway play, and it ran according to IMDB 887 performances. The play won the Tony Award for 'Best Play' in 1980, and maybe the play managed to achieve the balance I feel lacked in the movie. I don't know. I've obviously not seen the play.
What I do know is this. I feel like they didn't manage to tell the story within, even with a Marlee performing at an Oscar winning level. And quite honestly a much deserved one indeed. Still they've got almost two hours runtime, but doesn't manage to capture the essence of the potential presented. It's still a movie worth your time, and after watching you might choose like me to use the movie as a platform to imagine the story on your own. It's sure got plenty of substance to reflect on.
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