Sunday, April 20, 2008

Expressing an opinion?

I just finished watching the Hallmark presentation movie "Sweet Nothing in My Ear" (ignoring the horridness of the title) starring Marlee Matlin and Jeff Daniels. The story is about a deaf woman and a hearing husband who eventually come to legal separation from each other over whether or not to give their eight-year-old son (born hearing but slowly went deaf around age four) a cochlear implant.

I liked that the movie ended before the parents made a decision. I felt that it was a good way to not pass judgment either way, to let the ending speak to individual choice.

But just then, they advertised Hallmark magazine. In the current issue, there is a story about a woman who was born severely hearing impaired but chose in her mid-30s to get a cochlear implant. Before anyone starts flaming me, I have no judgment about Ms. Olson. She made the decision she felt was right for her. What I care to submit is the way Hallmark magazine only put in a story about one person receiving the implant and didn't round out the issue with a story of a person who lives every day with no sound. Even within the story they have, they gloss over the fact Ms. Olson will be battling balance issues for the rest of her life due to a surgical complication. Granted, it doesn't happen in all cases, but I feel as though the article was geared toward "the small miracles of sound" and the "funny" anecdotes about fixing the refrigerator because it was so loud ("No, Mom, it always sounds like that" -- oh, isn't that quaint).

I know, I know. Hallmark is give-you-diabetes sweet (their commercials were giving me the jitters), but I can't help feeling that an opinion is being expressed. I probably shouldn't even have watched it because I'm easily made cranky these days.

Did anyone else see the movie? What are your opinions?

1 comment:

Amanda said...

I haven't seen it, and it being from Hallmark, I probably never will. I can't stand movies that make me bawl my eyes out, so I try to avoid them. But, if I had, I would probably have an opinion. *grins*