What!

While this movie could use more comic snap, it’s quite sharp about the daily challenges a nonhearing actor faces in an industry built on winning people over with well-spoken bluster.

As a vehicle to demystify or inform about the deaf experience, What? does offer insight, but although some of its components spark with cleverness, it lacks overall narrative sophistication as a work of storytelling art.

Maucere is incredibly expressive, with both suits the silent style and makes the point that much of the communication everyone uses day to day doesn’t require sound.

The lighthearted humor is more effective than the heavy-handed lesson-learning that crops up in the final act, although both are well-intentioned.