Movie Review – CODA – Pleasant Heartwarming Tale
Table of Contents
My Rating – 4 out of 5
Plot Summary (Storyline) – CODA
Frank Rossi: You know why God made farts smell? So deaf people could enjoy them too.
Father to daughter in CODA
Well, a truly heartwarming movie after a very long time, that too with no Hollywood A-Listers in the cast! The story is something that has been done many times over in different iterations, but it is the treatment that stands out in this one. A teenage underdog, bullied in school, has a talent in which he/she wants to make it big, and the struggles to get there are all themes that have been done to death. Here, CODA – Child of Deaf Adults is an added layer to the story. It is sometimes funny, sometimes tear-jerking but mostly a strong story. Director Siân Heder has done a wonderful job with her ensemble cast.
Ruby Rossi (Emilia Jones), lives with her family in Gloucester, Cape Ann – with her father Frank Rossi (Troy Kotsur), brother Leo (Daniel Durant and mother Jackie Rossi (Marlee Matlin), whose source of livelihood is fishing. Ruby is the only member of her family who can hear, all the others are deaf. So it falls on her young shoulders to act as the interpreter for all her family’s interactions with the outside world. On the fishing trawler, she is the radio operator, while selling fish she’s the negotiator and thus is mature far beyond what her 17 years would suggest. She also attends high school!
At school, she’s bullied for the fish stink that comes off her, and for her family’s hearing disability – where bullies find the animated gesture-based communication to be funny! But Ruby, though unnerved at the hostility at times, becomes more and more resilient. She discovers that she does have a melodious voice and enrolls in the school choir. The first day, with jangling nerves, she doesn’t utter a word and runs away. The music teacher – Bernardo Villalobos (Eugenio Derbez) gives her a second chance and she is away! A sweet little romance brews here between Ruby and fellow chorister Miles (Ferdia Walsh-Peelo), and the film continues to tug at your heartstrings.
Bernardo tells Ruby and Miles to audition for a scholarship at Berklee College of Music, Boston recognizing the talent these two display and the subsequent chemistry in their duets. But Ruby is torn between the duties towards her close-knit and loving family and her opportunity to do what she loves doing – sing. Who will tell her father and brother of the radio communication while at sea? Who will communicate with the businessmen for their fledgling fish trading business? Who, in one word, will be the interpreter between her family’s world of silence and the noise of the outside world? Torn between the two tough choices, Ruby has once again to make the all-important decision…
Conclusion – Movie Review of CODA
It’s a movie that moves you, in small little ways. In a world of infinite silence, the language of love is still heard loud and clear. That is the bond that binds them, it’s why Ruby’s parents still can’t keep their hands off each other. In taking away their one sense, God has granted them a bigger heart and a deeper empathy than most with all their senses intact. In the end, you are bound to come away with moist eyes, such is the beauty of this clichéd story told differently – with lots of heart! The performances are brilliant, resolute, and worth watching many times over.
In tough times, a story of love, hope, and a second chance is all the intoxication that we need….
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