Children of a Lesser God
"Their love went beyond words." Children of a Lesser God, released in 1986, starred William Hurt as James Leeds and Marlee Matlin as Sarah Norman. The movie was a film adaptation of a Tony Award winning play by the same name. For the most part, the film received positive reviews from critics. The film netted Marlee Matlin both an Academy Award and Golden Globe. Ultimately, the movie was a huge financial success.
In this movie, Hurt played the role of James Leeds, a newly hired teacher at a school for deaf children, and Matlin played the role of Sarah Norman, a deaf school janitor. Sarah is troubled, and relatively withdrawn from things going on around her, and Hurt tries to make a connection by being creative in his attempts to communicate with her and get her to begin trying to speak aloud. After some time, the two begin a romantic relationship, but the relationship becomes rocky as they both try to exert their strong wills. This eventually leads to Sarah moving away to live with her mother. In the end, however, the James and Sarah do come together.