CODA
Gaining considerable awards’ heat, CODA tells the story of a teenager who yearns to sing but has to convince her deaf parents that her dream is worthwhile.
On deaf ears: Emilia Jones and Eugenio Derbez
It’s a premise to wrench your heart out: what if you were born with a God-given talent but your parents just didn’t get it? For most of her seventeen years, Ruby Rossi has proved indispensable to her family because she is the hearing ‘child of deaf adults.’ In the competitive field of the fishing industry, the Rossis struggle to make ends meet, a situation that reaches a melting point when new regulations are introduced that will cost them more in a day than they actually make. Red tape has little room for the deaf and so Frank (Troy Kotsur) and Leo Rossi (Daniel Durant) have become dependent on Ruby to negotiate their way in the world. But Ruby is growing up and has her own dreams of a life beyond the parental horizon. In a cruel twist of fate, she has been born with the voice of an angel and she loves to use it. More than anything else she craves to sing, but should she sacrifice her passion and her dreams to facilitate the family business?
When the original French film La Famille Bélier opened in 2014, it caused a furore in the deaf community for casting two well-known hearing actors in the lead roles. The American remake proves a good deal more sensitive and so Ruby’s parents and brother are all played by the hearing-impaired, with none other than the Oscar-winning Marlee Matlin as Ruby’s passionate, lusty mother. The writer-director Sian Heder has circumnavigated a number of potential narrative issues with both wit and insight. There is an obvious template in which the story sits but it is so beautifully judged, with both earthiness and compassion, that it grips from the start. There are few things more emotive than an outcast finding her voice and Emilia Jones delivers a star-making turn in the central role. Like Riz Ahmed in another film about the hearing-impaired, Sound of Metal, the London-born actress not only had to learn sign language but to master an American accent, both of which she does to perfection. And, of course, she also has to sing, but being the daughter of the Welsh singer Aled Jones, she has an inside advantage.
CODA is full of unexpected, wonderful moments, not least when a key scene is played out in complete silence, just when one expects the opposite. The film is also overflowing with humour, but never at the expense of the deaf characters, unlike in the French version. But perhaps its greatest strength is the presence of Troy Kotsur, Daniel Durant and Marlee Matlin as Ruby’s clan, who seem little aware of the noise they make, be it at the dinner table or in the bedroom. Being deaf can be embarrassing, but only if you are on the receiving end. It’ll open your ears – and your heart.
JAMES CAMERON-WILSON
Cast: Emilia Jones, Eugenio Derbez, Troy Kotsur, Ferdia Walsh-Peelo, Daniel Durant, Marlee Matlin, Amy Forsyth, Kevin Chapman.
Dir Sian Heder, Pro Fabrice Gianfermi, Philippe Rousselet, Jerôme Seydoux and Patrick Wachsberger, Screenplay Sian Heder, based on the French film La Famille Bélier, Ph Paula Huidobro, Pro Des Diane Lederman, Ed Geraud Brisson, Music Marius de Vries, Costumes Brenda Abbandandolo, Sound Paul Col, Dialect coach Wendy Overly.
Vendôme Pictures/Pathé Films-Apple TV+.
112 mins. USA/France/Canada. 2020. UK and US Rel: 13 August 2021. Cert. 12A .
