CODA

In 2021 a little comedy/drama film made by Apple Original Films did the seemingly impossible and became the first film made for streaming to become The Best Picture of the year at the Academy Awards. It beat out such heavy hitters as Dune, Belfast, Stephen Spielberg’s West Side Story, and the heavily favored The Power of the Dog. It would signal A change in the direction the Academy members were voting, shifting away from self-important message films and into more mainstream affair. This would be further be explored the following year with a win for Everything Everywhere All At Once and the following year with nominations for such unusual choices like Barbie and Poor Things. It had been a long time since such a seemingly simple drama like CODA won it all. But there is far more going for it than just the surface level plot. This is more than just a drama about family and choices; there is so much more to this film than that.

CODA began as a 2014 French film titled La Famille Bélier. Siân Heder was approached by original producer Phillippe Rousselet and Patrick Wachsberger to write and direct an American remake. Siân was chosen because she had an artistic eye that they felt would work well with making the film unique and reinvented for a broader audience. La Famille Bélier had done well in its native France but an American made film could have a bigger reach. It was Heder’s choice to change the setting from a rural farm to the north shore of Massachusetts in a fishing community. The location was chosen for being very picturesque and quintessentially New England, complete with a working-class grit. With the assistance of two collaborators, Heder learned to communicate in American Sign Language (ASL) and wrote the script to heavily feature it. 

Unlike the original movie, the family pictured in the film was cast primarily with deaf actors including veteran actress Marlee Matlin who had previously won an Academy Award for her acting in Children of a Lessor God. It was Marlee who pushed for the hiring of deaf actors to play her husband and son in the film, threatening to leave the production if the film’s financiers refused to do it. This opened the way for Troy Kotsur to be cast as Frank Rossi, her husband. It also brought in Daniel Durant, a relative newcomer whose primary experience came from the stage. Rounding out the cast was Emilia Jones, the sole hearing member of the family. Emilia had been acting for a decade at this point and was just becoming a known quantity when she took this role. 

The story follows the Rossi family, Jackie (Marlee Matlin), Frank (Troy Kotsur), Leo (Daniel Durant) and Ruby (Emilia Jones), a working class family in Gloucester, Massachusetts who make their living on a fishing boat. Ruby is the sole hearing member of the family and thus the family relies heavily on her to help communicate with the other fisherman, to secure their money for the haul, and to be onboard while the ship is out fishing so they can be in compliance with regulations requiring at least one hearing person onboard at all times who can listen for the radio and for warning sirens. While this arrangement has kept the family close knit it has also stifled Ruby’s options now that she is in her final year of high school. If she chooses to go on to college it will leave the family without someone onboard and they cannot afford to hire a replacement for her. 

Ruby is a gifted singer. This is a gift she cannot share with the rest of her family so she’s never really pursued it seriously. When looking for an extra-curricular activity to sign up for in school she impulsively chooses choir. At first her nerves interfere with his ability to sing in front of others but her instructor, Bernardo “Mr. V” Villalobos (Eugenio Derbez), sees something in her that he can mold and he encourages her to not only take additional lessons with him but to consider applying to Berklee College of Music in Boston, too. Ruby agrees to the extra lessons as well as singing a duet with Miles (Ferdia Walsh-Peelo), a boy she likes. But the lessons begin to eat into her time on the boat, eventually causing her to miss a work shift that ends up causing the family to lose their license and accrue a hefty fine. The family cannot afford the fine nor can they afford to have Ruby gone all the time. She must choose between her dream and the good of the family. Meanwhile, all of the local fisherman, the Rossi’s included, are straining under new rules that are chipping away at all of their profits. Something needs to change or no one will be able to afford the work anymore. 

Marlee Matlin is cast against type in this film and that has proven to be a perfect choice. She is generally cast as more classy characters who have their life put-together. It seems she is best though when she is out of this mold as she was just as memorable in her debut playing Sarah Norman, the troubled and angry young woman in Children of a Lessor God. Here she is playing a working class mother who has a great deal of disdain for the hearing people around her. She even confesses at one point to wishing her daughter was also born deaf. She has her little world she lives in and doesn’t like being outside of it. Her relationship with Frank is a loving one that, after many years of being together, has not lost a bit of the physical attraction. In one of the more amusing moments in the film the two have to go to a doctor for jock itch and are horrified when told they will have to abstain from sex while healing. Ruby mischievously misinforms them that this abstinence will have to be indefinite. 

While Jackie and Frank are perfectly fine being by themselves the same cannot be said for Leo. Leo desires to fit in with the other fisherman, accompanying them when they go off drinking after work. But his inability to hear leaves him out of their conversations and jokes and also makes him a target for bullying and bar brawls. He spends his evenings scrolling through Tinder looking for a match when all the while Gertie (Amy Forsyth), Ruby’s best friend, is in love with him.

Ruby loves singing but is very self conscious of herself. This is exacerbated by her own bullies who started out by making fun of the way she talked, then moved on to mocking her family and livelihood. When she attends her first choir meeting she loses it when asked to sing in front of everyone else and flees the room. Eventually she will be able to approach the teacher when he is alone and explain what happened. Through his encouragement she will gain the confidence needed to perform in front of people. Her family cannot enjoy her talent, though, experiencing music only through the heavy bass playing through the speakers in their truck. When they attend her choir performance they have to rely on everyone else’s responses to know whether she is any good or not and without being able to hear her they are just bored being there. Only when Frank has her sing for him, his hand next to her throat to feel the vibrations, does he truly appreciate her singing.

The drama around the fishing coalition and the family being forced to have a hearing person on-board at all times leads to a decision to get away from the coalition and start selling the fish themselves. Jackie is terrified of this prospect because it’ll mean having to work with the other wives whom she dislikes because they are hearing and she is not. She feels like an outsider around them and is afraid to try really getting to know them. Eventually she will get behind the idea but not without the help of her daughter serving as an interpreter, even when it makes her miss her singing practices. It takes Leo’s insistence and Frank’s growing appreciation of his daughter’s talents to convince the family to let her go and apply at Berklee. 

This is a beautiful film about family and sacrifices as well as persevering in the face of fear. It does so without resorting to deaf stereotypes in large part by the casting of real deaf actors in the key roles. It is refreshing to see a film portray the deaf as real people with passions and fears and not as helpless individuals, slaves to their disabilities, although it does depict them unrealistically as being unable to appreciate music. Emilia Jones is convincing, too, as she uses ASL with her family, sometimes violently when the conversations get heated. Her inappropriate nicknames for Leo are hilarious as she signs them to him and he reciprocates. It’s hilarious seeing her sign some truly dirty insults at her brother, seeing just how some of these names appear in sign language. The most beautiful moment in the film comes, though, when Ruby auditions for Berklee by singing Both Sides, Now by Joni Mitchell. At first her voice is shaken and weak, nervous as she is asked to sing solo in front of a panel who will decide if she gets in to the school. Her family sneaks into the balcony to offer her support. When she sees them she begins to sign the lyrics as she sings, her voice getting more powerful as she continues. It’s a heartfelt and emotional performance that never fails to make my eyes tear up.

CODA caught me off guard in 2021 when I first saw it. I’ve never had a deaf person in my family or in my life but I could relate to the feeling of not wanting to be out there amongst those who were different from me. I understood the fears and the feeling of isolation. I felt for Ruby when she talked about how bad her speaking was when she first started in school never having been around other hearing people and found it humorous and telling at the same time that she loved a record by The Shaggs, a 1960’s band notorious for their poor vocals and overall unprofessional musical talent. She started out being unable to speak clearly and ended up with an acceptance letter to a prestigious music college. It’s a journey we all dream of taking in one form or another; a journey of growing up and moving out, becoming our own person. Her loving family had relied on her for so long that it took a lot for them to give that up so she could go live her dreams. Her final goodbyes are just the right note to go out on, especially as she leans out the car window and signs her love to them as she is off to her first day at college.

Academy Award Nominations: 

Best Picture: Philippe Rousselet, Fabrice Gianfermi and Patrick Wachsberger (won)

Best Supporting Actor: Troy Kotsur (won)

Best Adapted Screenplay: Siân Heder (won)

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Release Date: August 13, 2021

Running Time: 111 Minutes

Rated PG-13

Starring: Emilia Jones, Eugenio Derbez, Troy Kotsur, Ferdia Walsh-Peelo, Daniel Durant and Marlee Matlin

Directed By: Siân Heder