Movie Review: CODA (PG13 – 111 minutes)

 

As I attempt to make my way through the Best Picture Oscar nominees, I watched CODA on Apple + TV. 

The movie tells the story of Ruby, a CODA (Child Of Deaf Adults), who is the only hearing member of her family. Her mom, dad, and brother are all deaf. She helps her father and brother on their fishing boat and functions as an interpreter when bringing in and selling the fish to a distributor.  She is finishing up high school, which proves to be even more difficult for her due to the bullying she receives – high school is the worst.  While signing up for extra curriculars, she follows her crush, Miles, to choir. She figures since she loves to sing on the boat while working, why not give it a try.

After getting over her fear with the assistance of her amazing choir instructor Bernardo Villalobos, she works towards embracing her love for singing, and the terrifying possibility of a life away from her family. 

The movie is fantastic, positive and uplifting – which I feel is always far too rare among award-season films.  It is based on a French movie called The Belier Family which was met with some criticism when it was released because two of the main deaf characters were played by hearing actors. Here – the family is all played by deaf actors, and star Emilia Jones spent months learning ASL to act with them.  As the story proceeds, it is not just a coming of age movie for Ruby as she learns to embrace her own existence, it functions a bit as a coming-of-age for the family as well as they learn they are able to operate without Ruby’s constant presence to translate and help them function. There have been other stories about parents struggling to let their kids go off to college, but this story adds the layer of the parents viewing their kid as their lifeline and connection to the world.  Eventually, they begin to trust and join the community around them.  

Emilia Jones absolutely shines as Ruby, somehow able to simultaneously show love and devotion to her family while feeling stifled and overwhelmed by the sense of duty and obligation she feels towards them.

Marlee Matlin and Troy Kotsur as her parents Jackie and Frank are unsurprisingly fantastic – equal parts hilarious, embarrassing, and genuinely heartbreaking.  Matlin has been exceptional for a long time, but Kotsur was a bit of a surprise for me. He has more emotional heavy lifting to do, and steals the scenes he is in.  Daniel Durant plays their son, Leo, and he gets some comic relief bits but also gets to be frustrated that his parents depend so much on Ruby when he keeps telling them he can help.

I really enjoyed Amy Forsyth as Gertie, Ruby’s best friend. She is straightforward and clear about her intentions – mainly getting with Leo – but provides some really fun moments.  Between her and Ferdia Walsh-Peelo as Miles, Ruby’s crush, then friend, then singing partner, then boyfriend – Ruby has at least a couple of good folks around her.

Eugenio Derbez is wonderful as he always is as Mr. V, the choir teacher. He helps Ruby face her fear and be strong enough to go after what she wants.

Overall, I really enjoyed it and I think you should make the time to watch this one. Currently it’s on Apple+, but I believe you can rent it in other places as well, Amazon and such. It has been wining quite a few awards to date, and I think Kotsur might be a lock for best supporting actor.  Give it a shot, it is beautiful, painful, and joyful.

8 out of 10.