CODA centers on Ruby Rossi, the titular Child of Deaf Adults. She's about to graduate high school, and is expected to work full-time in the family fishing business where she already plays a key role. But she's beginning to embrace her love of music and singing, and she connects with a teacher who thinks she has a real shot at pursuing it with a college scholarship. How can Ruby, the only hearing person in a family of four, expect her family to support her dream? And even if they do, how can she turn her back on them when they've come to rely so much on having her around?
I was moved by CODA emotionally, even as intellectually, I realized just how well-worn some of the tropes of the plot truly are. This is every drama about the "odd one out" in a family unit, of a dreamer whom others just don't understand. It's the time-tested tale of a kid expected to take up the family business, but who wants something very different for themselves. Yes, it's a formula, but it continues to endure and endear because so many people can relate to it. Anyone who's ever felt isolated, who has harbored a secret, who has dreamed to be different -- and that's basically everyone -- can find something familiar in a story like this.
The particulars of such a story are what determines if each new version feels like a cliché. And I find those particulars here to be refreshing and profound. Obligation and family are bigger themes here than in other movies of this type. It has a lot to say about how one might not even see or feel family as obligation, and about how frustration can build up over time.
The movie is about Ruby, but it doesn't simply use the rest of her family as props in her story. At different points, the movie gives us strong empathy both for being an isolated hearing person surrounded by deaf people and for being an isolated deaf person among the hearing. Ruby's brother Leo has a strong point of view on his own place in their family that a lesser movie wouldn't have bothered to present. And Ruby's parents get memorable scenes both together and one-on-one with Ruby over the course of the film.
The casting here is wonderful. Emilia Jones is exceptional as Ruby. If you've watched any of Netflix's Locke & Key, you've already seen her, and may well have thought she was quite solid for a younger actor (like most of the cast of that show). CODA reveals just how much talent Emilia Jones has that her show isn't even scratching the surface of. I'm talking more than just "she can sing!" (she can) or "she learned to sign and drive a fishing boat for this movie" (she did); this movie reveals how much emotional depth she's capable of. If I were an Oscar voter, I'd be putting her on my nominations ballot.
The three other members of Ruby's family are (appropriately) cast by deaf actors. Marlee Matlin, of course, will be known to almost everyone, though it is worth noting that her performance here is different; her character is not as put-together, not as sophisticated, not as sensitive as other roles she's played before. Troy Kotsur and Daniel Durant surely won't be as widely known to audiences, but both are just as great in this movie. Plus, there are two more solid performances from Ferdia Walsh-Peelo (of Sing Street) and Eugenio Derbez.
I loved CODA. I've already seen almost every movie expected to be nominated for the Best Picture Oscar this year, and it easily rose to the top of that list... and, indeed, almost to the top of my personal Top 10 Movies of 2021 list. Writer-director Sian Heder has created a lovely movie here. I give it an A-. If you have Apple TV+, I highly recommend watching it.
No comments:
Post a Comment