L'amore senza voce

Mare Winningham is really one of the great unsung American actresses of our generation. She is exceptionally talented whether she is playing the daughter of a deaf couple who must sign language to communicate with her parents. She is the their ears to the world and often must translate between her parents and the hearing world. One memorable scene is her at the funeral home translating for her parents and the undertaker as a child for her brother's unfortunate death. Winningham's performance is award-winning as is the mother played by deaf actress, Phyllis Frelich. Her character seeks to be independent and hopes that her parents can adjust to the hearing world.

I watched this in my ASL class. I'm Deaf and fluent in ASL, but taking the class because I didn't want to take Spanish. This was such a wonderful movie, and it made me cry like a baby at the end... and I never cry at movies! I've seen about five thousand films, and the only other one to make me cry was Exorcist, but this is much more sad.

Though my situation is the exact opposite of the girl in this movie (I'm Deaf child of Hearing parents) it was still very profound. It also wasn't offending to the Hearing people in my class, so that is a plus for any Hearing person looking at this movie.

If it comes on TV, tape it. You will not regret it.

This truly is one of the most beautifully made films of the 80's. The directing was picture perfect and the performances by the actors was magnificent. Their work was extraordinary it is puzzling to me why none of them ever got any awards for their performances. Everyone was perfect right down to the extras. This movie is truly worth paying five dollars.

I saw this film in the late eighties and it made me cry. Both my parents were deaf so I saw many things that reminded me of my own life.I wasn't unhappy but I had to make some decisions that my parents didn't understand and some of them weren't understood by the hearing people. The scene with the undertaker who tries to sell a very expensive coffin made me angry. The question of the father when he asks his daughter to describe what sound the sun makes.

She signs that the sun doesn't make any sound and he answers: But they say that the sunbeam falls on the street. So it has to make a sound. Those things made me sad. But still I think it's the best movie I've ever seen. I hope to see it once again and I'm sure that my emotions will be the same as 18 years ago.And who doesn't want to have a friend like Mr. Petrakis. What a wonderful man he was. So friendly, so patient, so very wise. A very, very, moving and beautiful movie.

The story of how Deaf people survived and how a hearing child coped with Deaf parents has never been portrayed as well as this tv movie did. As a deaf person, I was able to understand the frustration the parents went through and as the hearing child went through as if I was in her shoes. The era where Deafness was not well known and is not considered normal was portrayed well. I recommend everybody watch the show. You will come to understand that Deaf people are just like hearing people.