underwater scene

Sarah (Marlee Matlin) is swimming in the indoor pool nude. James (William Hurt) comes in and start signing to her “I am falling in…” at which point Sarah backs away in disbelief or shock or whatever you want to call it because she realizes he is going to say “…in love with you”. She has never had the opportunity to establish an emotionally intimate relationship in her entire life and finds the idea terrifying. Realizing that he’s about to frighten her off if he continues with “…in love with you”, James changes tactic in midsentence and instead finishes with “into the pool with you!” At this point he purposely falls into the pool, dress clothes, shoes, trench coat, everything, which Sarah finds absolutely hilarious. In the next few seconds, the filmmakers show us that James has now removed all his clothes and is now nude with Sarah as they look at each other underwater. (I don’t recall if he has put his clothes at the side of the pool or they’re simply discarded at the bottom of the pool.) The poignancy of this moment is that James, being underwater, is now “hearing-impaired” just like Sarah (although obviously not to the same degree). They proceed to make love, which is not shown explicitly, but is not hard to figure out either. Afterward, if I recall correctly, James is seen leaving the pool dressed but soaked, by the school’s administrator. The administrator acts shocked, but I don’t recall if he is able to figure out what has just happened, or if they speak of it. It’s been too long since I’ve seen the movie, sorry.

Does this help?

There is also an earlier scene where just Matlin is swimming and there is total silence as we see the water droplets swirl around in high definition slo-mo. Very cool and the only real point that conveys her POV.