William Hurt plays a teacher who is newly arriving at a deaf school. His approach to teaching is not traditional. Think Robin Williams in 'Dead Poet Society'. He's hip and modern. One of the first things he does is to start his students singing along with rock music.
He soon meets an angry young woman (Marlee Matlin) who works at the school. She was one of the students since the age of five. Completely deaf and unwilling to learn how to read lips or speak. Hurt falls in love with her.
She rebuffs his efforts to help her and we learn that she was taken advantage of when she was younger. He eventually breaks through with his vulnerablity. The movie shows their continuing relationship as he works to gain her trust.
There is a very interesting tension in this story. Matlin wants to be accepted only on her own terms. She seems to think that lip-reading or speaking will harm her self image. Make her less her own self. Hurt tries to respect that but he can't help but see how she's limiting herself. She has been very angry with the world ever since she was young. He wants to show her that anger is hurting her. The movie doesn't resolve this tension is all the better for it. A very good movie.
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