A coda is a musical term, referring to a section at the end of a piece that brings the song to a close. A literary piece can also have a coda, which performs the same function. In the deaf community, CODA is an acronym, meaning Child Of Deaf Adults. CODAs occupy a unique space, bridging the worlds of the hearing and the deaf.
The movie “CODA” is the story of Ruby Rossi (Emilia Jones), a high-schooler whose parents and brother are deaf. Fluent in American Sign Language, Ruby helps her family communicate with the hearing world, and she also helps out on the family's fishing boat. Her real passion, though, is singing. Her family obviously cannot appreciate what a talent she has, but her school choir teacher (Eugenio Derbez) does, and he helps her get an audition for the Berklee College of Music. With her family's business growing, Ruby's dreams butt up against her family obligations.
“CODA” is a re-make of a French-Belgian film, “La Famille Belier.” It is notable for using deaf actors to play the deaf characters, including Marlee Matlin (“Children of a Lesser God”). Star Emilia Jones not only had to take voice lessons for her role, she had to take a crash course in American Sign Language, as 40% of the film's dialogue is signed.
With such excellent acting talent to work with, and such an interesting setup, I wish writer/director Sian Heder had delivered a more interesting story. The film has deaf characters, but everyone in the movie can see, and everyone in the audience will be able to see “CODA”'s plot points coming from a mile away. It's a sweet, little movie, but too predictable and treacly.
2.5 stars out of 5
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