Departing from an interesting premise - a deaf family and their communication difficulties with the hearing ones - this could have been a really interesting movie but sadly fails in many aspects. The Bélier family have a farm and all their members are deaf except their teenager daughter, who has to be the family's interpreter since they can not communicate with hearing people otherwise.
This is one of main flaws of the film. It is not believable that nor the father nor the mother have the skills to communicate with hearing people (how did they manage before their daughter was born?). Apparently they can not read lips nor learn to or have an interpreter. Too hard to believe. And so their daughter has to do this job apart of going to school and it begins to be too much for her, especially when she discovers singing at school and wants to sing professionally.
Another big flaw of the film apart of a peculiar -a bit gruesome - sense of humor, Departing from an interesting premise - a deaf family and their communication difficulties with the hearing ones - this could have been a really interesting movie but sadly fails in many asapects. The Bélier family have a farm and all their members are deaf except their teenager daughter, who has to be family's interpreter since they can not communicate with hearing people otherwise.
This is one of main flaws of the film. It is not believable that nor the father nor the mother have the skills to communicate with hearing people (how did they manage before their daughter was born?). Apparently they can not read lips nor learn to or have an interpreter. Too hard to believe. And so their daughter has to do this job apart of going to school and it begins to be too much for her, especially when she discovers singing at school and wants to sing professionally.
Another flaw of the film apart of its peculiar and a bit gruesome sense of humor is the way the family is shown. They seem more dumb than deaf. Obviously done for amusing purposes -and failing- the fact is that deafness is presented as a sort of short minded state if else that annoys rather than amuses. It was a good oportunity to show deaf people daily life wasted.
Several other things appear to be out of place and not funny at all (younger brother sex adventure or daughter first period) and all these things diminish films good intentions, wasting a good oportunity to enter in a different world with its own daily struggles and challenges. Should the script had shown these instead of being a mere parody it would have been far more interesting.
The ending scene with daughter singing in front of their parents using hand sign language while she sings so her family can understand what she is singing sure is a nice one -by the way, the original song is not about leaving home for good but a farewell note from a kid who is going to commit suicide resulting in some words being changed- but I rather much prefer the scene where she is singing in a school festival and her family has gone to watch to her. All of a sudden sound is off and we can have a glimpse of what being deaf really mean. Hearing no sound. Only watching her moving her lips. And then watching people applause. No sound at all. That was for me the best and most emotional scene of the movie. Really goose feather.
This is one of main flaws of the film. It is not believable that nor the father nor the mother have the skills to communicate with hearing people (how did they manage before their daughter was born?). Apparently they can not read lips nor learn to or have an interpreter. Too hard to believe. And so their daughter has to do this job apart of going to school and it begins to be too much for her, especially when she discovers singing at school and wants to sing professionally.
Another big flaw of the film apart of a peculiar -a bit gruesome - sense of humor, Departing from an interesting premise - a deaf family and their communication difficulties with the hearing ones - this could have been a really interesting movie but sadly fails in many asapects. The Bélier family have a farm and all their members are deaf except their teenager daughter, who has to be family's interpreter since they can not communicate with hearing people otherwise.
This is one of main flaws of the film. It is not believable that nor the father nor the mother have the skills to communicate with hearing people (how did they manage before their daughter was born?). Apparently they can not read lips nor learn to or have an interpreter. Too hard to believe. And so their daughter has to do this job apart of going to school and it begins to be too much for her, especially when she discovers singing at school and wants to sing professionally.
Another flaw of the film apart of its peculiar and a bit gruesome sense of humor is the way the family is shown. They seem more dumb than deaf. Obviously done for amusing purposes -and failing- the fact is that deafness is presented as a sort of short minded state if else that annoys rather than amuses. It was a good oportunity to show deaf people daily life wasted.
Several other things appear to be out of place and not funny at all (younger brother sex adventure or daughter first period) and all these things diminish films good intentions, wasting a good oportunity to enter in a different world with its own daily struggles and challenges. Should the script had shown these instead of being a mere parody it would have been far more interesting.
The ending scene with daughter singing in front of their parents using hand sign language while she sings so her family can understand what she is singing sure is a nice one -by the way, the original song is not about leaving home for good but a farewell note from a kid who is going to commit suicide resulting in some words being changed- but I rather much prefer the scene where she is singing in a school festival and her family has gone to watch to her. All of a sudden sound is off and we can have a glimpse of what being deaf really mean. Hearing no sound. Only watching her moving her lips. And then watching people applause. No sound at all. That was for me the best and most emotional scene of the movie. Really goose feather.