User Reviews

This Afterschool Special hit the target. Many teenagers are ashamed of their parents, for any number of reasons. Many teenagers think their parents are too strict. And many parents are uncertain how to raise a teenager. In this movie, the parents happen to be deaf -- and that adds another dimension to these issues of teenage and parental angst. The acting is believable. The kids are attractive -- and my teenage girls were able to identify with them. Rosanna Arquette is a gifted actress and this film displays her budding promise. Her facility in using sign language to communicate with her parents -- and even to scream at them -- was not only impressive -- it also added to the believability of their relationship, the frustration of parent-child communication in general, and her underlying love for her parents.

Since many people have either not seen this TV movie, or won't admit they did, I'll step up to the plate.

No joke, I saw this "Afterschool Special" today. It was a little over the top, but most Afterschool Specials were (I guess they did that to make sure us bad asses paid attention so we stayed in the house and out of trouble).

Basic story: Young girl is growing up. Parents (who are deaf, by the way) don't want to young girl to grow up. Parents realize that they can't stop their child from growing, and decide it's ok that she does. Credits roll as they all get in the car to rub elbows at a party. The end.

Ok, I'm a sap, I sobbed towards the end when Dan gave the Charlie the gift from her mother. It was very touching.

Why were the parents deaf? I don't think that matters. The premise of story is that there's a time when parents and children don't see eye to eye, particularly during their child's teenage years. Charlie made it a point to say that her parents act like they don't have any idea about what's going on nowadays (Note: Remember this movie was made in 1978, so keep that in mind). And in an ironic twist, not only did her parents not hear the many sides of her story, they couldn't hear her (literally). Interesting, isn't it? I thought so. As I stated earlier, it's over the top (the cheese factor is high), but I think the story made a valid introspective about child/parent relations.

Priscilla Pointer and Stephen Elliott were excellent as overbearing yet concerned parental units and Rosanna Arquette was fabu as Charlie, a young woman who loved her parents but wanted to find herself. By the way, Rosanna fans (who haven't already seen this movie) may want to pick it up because Rosanna was simply stunning. I think she's pretty, but in her youth, she was utterly gorgeous. Her smile illuminates the tiny rooms of her fabricated movie-set dwellings.

If you do view this movie, watch for the scene were Rosanna yells at her on-screen parents -- through sign language. It's right after her mother looks at Charlie's face full of makeup.