Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore

In 1987, Marlee Matlin became the youngest ever winner of the Academy Award for Best Actress, at the age of 21. (She still holds that distinction.) Matlin was also the first performer from the Deaf community to win an Oscar. The film was Children of a Lesser God, and overnight she became a spokesperson for the Deaf, advocating for closed captions and, she hoped, blazing a trail for others to follow. On top of all this, she was in a relationship with her famous and brilliant costar, William Hurt.

If all that sounds like a fairy tale, the reality was often grim. Hurt was jealous, an alcoholic, and physically abusive. Marlee had a drug problem of her own. And when she chose to speak when announcing the nominees for Best Actor at the Academy Awards a year later, she inadvertently sparked off a painful controversy within the Deaf community. When she published her memoirs in 2009, she called it I’ll Scream Later.

Watching Shoshannah Stern’s documentary you come out with a great deal of admiration for what Matlin has achieved over the years (her imdb page lists 68 TV and movie acting credits and seven as producer), but also a fresh appreciation for the challenges society sets for the Deaf.

Note: Stern conducts the interview with Matlin in American Sign Language, with subtitles for non-signers, and there are open captions throughout the film.

As Alissa Wilkinson concludes in her New York Times review: “In addition to telling this fascinating, devastating story, Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore gives hearing viewers the experience of watching a film that’s intended for an audience with different capabilities, people who speak a different language. It’s as much about its form as its content; what it says is demonstrated by how it says it. The resulting film is engrossing — and it’s also profound.”

An intimate and moving documentary that takes us through the legendary life of Marlee Matlin, uncovering a legacy of advocacy, activism, and perseverance.

Peyton Robinson, rogerebert.com

An engaging, exuberant portrait of the relentlessly likeable Matlin as she enters her 60s.

Leslie Felperin, Hollywood Reporter