After the Silence (1996)

Laura a young deaf girl has never been taught to communicate and believes that her own stupidity has earned her tortuous beating from her father. Enter Pam Willis a champion of abused women. Pam vows to provide stability in Laura s life. When social worker Ned and Pam learn that district attorney s office will not prosecute Laura s father for his brutal assaults it becomes crucial that Laura to learn to communicate well enough to demand justice for herself.Starring JoBeth Williams Kellie Martin Alan Rosenber and S. Epatha MerksesonSystem Requirements:Run Time: 94 minutes Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA Rating: NR UPC: 030306778891 Manufacturer No: DVD7788 Product Description

A cheesy, but ultimately satisfying movie

I first saw this movie on a cable channel, and saw through the made-for-tv nonsense. The story is about a young woman who is deaf. Her story starts, in the movie that is, with her abusive father dealing drugs in the living room of a very small apartment. Laura, played by Kellie Martin, is taking a basket of freshly folded laundry, and happens in on her father. Furious, he begins to hit her, until her mother attempts to step in. With his rage focused on her mother, Laura desperately tries to escape from his wrath. He charges back at Laura, and literally scares her out of a two story window. Rather than face him, she decides to drop, to what could possibly her demise.
This is how the movie starts. And i was captured immediately. The acting for the most part is very well done. The two main actresses, JoBeth Williams, and Kellie Martin are pretty much the focus of the entire film. As this was made for TV, there are some eye rolling scenes, but overall, they were excusable because of the power behind the story. This movie, while not perfect, has a lot of heart, and often makes you smile. While i agree with the previous reviewer that Hollywood should do something about subtitles, i don't fault this movie for not being the pioneer in that aspect. They took a good story, and did what they could with it.
I would rate this as 4 1/2 if i could. The cheesy aspect takes little away from the story, and even if it did, i didn't notice it.
I applaud Kellie Martin for her performance in this movie, as she relies on body language to get her feelings across, and does a fantastic job at doing so.
I own this movie. There are no special features, or even chapter selection on the main menu, but i don't regret purchasing it at all. August 23, 2008

aka *Breaking Through*

This movie is also titled as *Breaking Through* which can be seen on Lifetime channel. Anyways, I'm surprised that I haven't heard nor seen this movie before.

Kellie Martin plays a 20-year-old deaf woman, Laura. Laura was never let out of the apartment. Her father kept her inside, along with her mother, and never let her go to school. After one too many abusive espisodes, Laura escapes by jumping out of the window but falling down 2 stories.

She wakes up in a hospital with a social worker, who knew signs, looking after her. It is discovered that she doesn't know signs and is illiterate. So, in order to have a "successful" trial against Laura's father, Laura has to learn a language.

Throughout the rest of the film, Pam, the social worker, works diligently with Laura with (sign) language as well as looking for a place that will take Laura in. Since many places would not take in a Deaf client or have been shut down, Pam has no choice but to break professional boundaries and let Laura live with her. This is a modern-day version of Helen Keller and her teacher, Anne Sullivan.

Overall, it was a good movie. I just think that it's tiresome seeing everyone sign and talk at the same time. Why hasn't Hollywood thought of adding subtitles during signed dialogues between characters? Of course, it's also tiresome to see hearing actors play Deaf characters. ...sigh...

It's amazing to see how young S. Epatha Merkerson looked before she joined Law & Order.

Otherwise, an ok movie. May 12, 2007

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