Summary
The Sundance premiering coming of age drama gets a broader festival release, and it’s the bundle of emotional joy we need right now.
The award-winning Sound of Metal was an audio-visual exploration of a musician suddenly cut off from the hearing world. Sian Heder’s CODA offers up the flip side of the coin, following a child of deaf adults (or CODA) as she finds her voice in the wider community.
Based on the 2014 French comedy film La Famille Bélier, Heder transplants her version to the fishing town of Gloucester, Massachusetts. Teenager Ruby Rossi (Emilia Jones) is an essential part of her family’s fishing business, acting as the interpreter for her culturally Deaf father (Troy Kotsur), mother (Marlee Matlin) and brother (Daniel Durant). Yet music is her passion, something her overly protective mother dismisses as unimportant.
When school music teacher and choirmaster Mr. Villalobos (Eugenio Derbez) recognises her singing talent, he starts giving her private lessons and encourages her to apply to Berkeley. Pairing her up with fellow singer Miles (Ferdia Walsh-Peelo), Ruby finds herself at a crossroads: help her family’s struggling business or pursue her dreams of a singing career.
Like its lead, CODA is a film that delicately straddles several worlds and genres. On some level, it plays strictly by the family drama rulebook, serving up all the expected tropes. What I didn’t expect was how deeply touching the film can be. The lived experience of this family is almost tangible, reaching a potential crush point between their beleaguered industry and engaging with the wider community. There’s at least one tender moment between father and daughter, as he holds her throat to ‘hear’ the vibrations of her song, that had me sniffling into my notes.
The soulful Jones (most recently seen in TV’s Locke & Key adaptation) leads a stellar cast. The award-winning Matlin plays against type, offering up a character who is equal parts forthright and funny. She was also reportedly instrumental in using her connections in the Deaf West Theatre to find the excellent Kotsur and Durant, who had previously all worked together on Spring Awakening.
What’s most remarkable about CODA is that you probably know exactly where it is all heading from the get-go, but it nevertheless remains an engaging and heartfelt coming of age story. Yes, it has all of the feel-good moments in spades, and the micro-dramas of teen angst, but they all just add to the film’s rich fabric. A charmer that’s going to wind up on a lot of lists this year.
2021 | USA | DIRECTOR: Sian Heder | WRITER: Sian Heder (based on La Famille Bélier) | CAST: Emilia Jones, Eugenio Derbez, Troy Kotsur, Ferdia Walsh-Peelo, Daniel Durant, Marlee Matlin | DISTRIBUTOR: Apple TV+, MIFF 2021 | RUNNING TIME: 111 minutes | RELEASE DATE: 5 – 22 August 2021 (MIFF 2021), 13 August 2021 (Apple TV+)
