(2000)
4.5
Tom Wiener
In fewer than 80 minutes, Sound and Fury covers an amazing amount of territory, though in the end one wishes that it had actually covered a bit more. The central debate that threatens to rip apart a family, the Artinians of Glen Cove, NY, centers on the necessity for an operation, a cochlear ear implant, that will help two of its children to hear and speak. The problem is that the family is split between the hearing and deaf members. The deaf members -- Chris and his wife, Mari -- are articulate and passionate about their happiness with life in the deaf community. They make it clear that they fear losing their very bright five-year-old daughter to the land of the hearing, should she have the implant. Their insistence, reinforced at a picnic with friends in the deaf community, that they are not handicapped, that they are capable of leading normal and productive lives, is hard to refute. But the film also dramatizes the anguish that Chris' parents and his brother, Peter, with a child who is a candidate for the implant, feel as hearing people with a deaf offspring; they want to bring that baby into their own world. The film does try to be even-handed, and if the balance tips toward those who would insist on a deaf child having the operation, it might be that not enough evidence of the deaf community's nurturing aspects is presented. Even so, Sound and Fury is an emotionally gripping document of the mixed benefits of medical scientific breakthroughs.
releases for Sound and Fury on AllMovie
Sound and Fury (2000)
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Sound and Fury
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January 2, 2002 |
