Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore (Blu-ray Review)
Director
Shoshannah SternRelease Date(s)
2025 (October 21, 2025)Studio(s)
Actual Films/Impact Partners/ITVS/American Masters Pictures (Kino Lorber)- Film/Program Grade: B+
- Video Grade: A
- Audio Grade: A
- Extras Grade: B
Review
Being the same age as actress Marlee Matlin, seeing her Academy Award-winning film debut in Children of a Lesser God in 1986, when it was new, how could I not help but fall in love with this stunningly beautiful, smart, and fiercely independent woman onscreen, whose deaf character develops a passionate romance with William Hurt? In the decades following that historical win, Matlin defied the odds as a deaf actor, working in film and television both constantly and often memorably, tearing down little and big barriers along the way. Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore, directed by actress Shoshannah Stern, also deaf, is an interesting, sometimes surprising documentary about Matlin’s life and career, and larger issues of being deaf in a hearing world.
Matlin was just 19-20 when Children of a Lesser God was in production, and her Oscar win thrust a completely unprepared Matlin into the position of unofficial spokeswoman-advocate for the deaf. But she was still an unformed young woman, experimenting with (and eventually becoming addicted to) drugs, and unbeknownst to the public her seemingly storybook offscreen romance with actor Hurt was, in fact, a nightmare of physical and sexual abuse, he also an alcoholic.
Nevertheless, she took up the mantle, publicly dispelling widespread misconceptions about the deaf and advocating for closed-captioning on broadcast and cable television and home video. One of the most interesting and informative aspects of the film concerns the latter, how Matlin grew up watching The Wizard of Oz in its annual airings on network television, but without captioning unable to completely understand it. We take captioning and subtitling for granted today, but that simply wasn’t an option for Matlin’s generation and all deaf people who came before her. Further, she discusses with director Stern obstacles and frustrations particular to the deaf, for instance that so much is conveyed verbally within the hearing world, that much basic information is unintentionally denied them. Most prominent here is that during the time Matlin was physically and sexually abused by Hurt, Matlin claims to have been completely unaware of domestic violence laws or even the term itself—it was critical information she as a member of the deaf community simply didn’t have everyday access to because she was left out of the everyday discussions we have with family and friends the rest of us take for granted.
Besides director Stern herself, Matlin and other deaf actors interviewed discuss how movies, plays, and television shows with deaf leading characters are too often written for and from the hearing world perspective, lacking insight on the complexities and subtleties of communication, of familial relationships and, until recently, these deaf roles were often played by non-impaired actors. For many deaf people, Children of a Lesser God was revelatory in earnestly exploring so many deaf issues for the first time, yet few deaf-centric stories followed, and now even that acclaimed play is seen by some deaf people as a somewhat dated story about the deaf written for the hearing.
Still, in Matlin’s subsequent appearances on shows like Seinfeld and The West Wing, Matlin again and again broke through many of those barriers. For the 2021 film CODA, about a teenage girl who is the child of deaf parents, the studios behind the film cast Matlin as the mother but wanted a hearing “name” actor to play her deaf husband, for box-office insurance. Matlin told them if that were to happen, she’d walk, and deaf actor Troy Kotsur—who ultimately won an Oscar, the second actor after Matlin—was cast.
Throughout, Matlin impresses with her strength, humor, and tenacity. Though swept into advocacy, throughout her career she’s stood her ground, speaking out and fighting for what she believes is right, even when sometimes what she says and does is in opposition of the deaf community itself. (When Matlin was invited to the Oscars the year following Children of a Lesser God, to present the Best Actor Award, many in the deaf community were offended when she spoke rather than signed the winner’s name.)
There are a few surprises, like Happy Days star Henry Winkler’s unexpected influence on Matlin’s life. While the film acknowledges her Jewish faith, it sidesteps Matlin’s Zionism, she being a lifetime member of the Hadassah Women’s Zionist Organization of America. Perhaps it was perceived as an issue that would have distracted audiences away from the film’s main themes. Fair enough, but since the film hints that being Jewish has had a profound influence on Matlin’s life, it does play like the subject was dropped as too hot a potato.
Shot digitally, Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore is presented in 1.78:1 widescreen, the image clean and sharp and up to contemporary standards. The DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and 2.0 stereo mixes are also unusually good.
However, the presentation has one unnecessarily annoying aspect I’ve never encountered before. While hearing audiences obviously need subtitles for the long sign language conversations, the entire film is aggressively closed-captioned throughout, including not just spoken dialogue by interviewees such as Winkler and film and TV clips featuring Matlin, but also every conceivable sound, e.g., “Deep bass jazz ends” and “ambient air circulating.” These captions appear in myriad fonts and all over the screen. This, of course, is wonderfully helpful for hearing-impaired viewers, but because these full-on captions cannot be turned off, they distract mightily for those not hearing-impaired, drawing attention to text rather than the interviewees faces and voices. While this may reflect how the film was presented theatrically, it does get in the way of fully appreciating the film since the hearing viewer has no choice but needlessly endure them. For the record this region “A” disc also includes descriptive audio for the hearing impaired, thankfully optional.
Extras consist of the usual sort of thing for a contemporary documentary: outtakes, a Q&A with director Stern and Matlin herself, and a theatrical trailer.
Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore is engrossing and informative at once, with many of its key themes staying with the viewer long after the film is over. And who knew Marlee Matlin was such a trailblazer in so many ways, that her historical Academy Award win was but the start of many “firsts.” Highly Recommended.
- Stuart Galbraith IV