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CODA Movie Review

CODA is a 2021 drama film directed by Sian Heder and starring Emilia Jones and Marlee Matlin. It’s a very familiar, but effective family drama.

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“You know why God made farts smell?

So deaf people could enjoy them too“

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As a CODA (Child of Deaf Adults) Ruby is the only hearing person in her deaf family. When the family’s fishing business is threatened, Ruby finds herself torn between pursuing her love of music and her fear of abandoning her parents. This is one of those movie premises that are about slightly manufactured conflicts, but that end up inspiring viewers with a positive message about accepting your own differences.

The film is mostly very familiar in its narrative, though the twist that the hearing person is the one who feels left out and in the minority is definitely a fresh spin on this formula, but still the movie’s message and the overall narrative are been there, done that.

The characters and the performers do manage to elevate this material, however, at least to a certain degree. The emotional connection that we develop toward them is legitimate, leading to the third act that was truly moving and so sweet. My highlight is the choir recital sequence. This scene is the only moment in the movie that was genuinely incredible in execution.

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As Ruby is singing, we see her family losing interest as they cannot hear her, so they start making plans for tonight, which hurts the girl’s feelings, but eventually they notice the positive reaction around them from the audience, so they join in the fun and celebration of her daughter. The way this sequence was executed from the cinematography to its attention to detail, especially the sound, was brilliant, and I wished the rest of the film were as interesting.

The final sequence between her and her father and also her mother were both quite touching. The movie did earn those heartfelt moments and it did move me in that sense. However, my issue is that the first half is nowhere near the quality of the second half as nothing of interest happened there, it was all just build up, and not a good one at that. I do not care about music movies, so this heavy emphasis on singing personally bothered me. More emphasis on family dynamics would have been appreciated in this instance.

Emilia Jones is excellent as Ruby and she was believable in the role. She’s the unexpected standout in a strong cast, which includes the Oscar winner Marlee Matlin. She is great, but I wished for more scenes with the parents in the end. The brother is also somewhat underutilized, though the fighting with him was well done. They employed a cast of real life deaf people, which was important in making the sign language dialogue believable, and surely the best scenes in the movie were often exactly those moments where they argued in sign language. Everything else with Ruby, especially that annoying, underdeveloped teacher played by Eugenio Derbez was dull and poorly executed in my opinion.

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CODA is very well filmed and that lake where Ruby goes to have her serene moments was just gorgeous. Some of the cinematic moments elevated the movie, including the expectedly excellent sound. The dialogue is also excellent. I just wish the direction and the pacing were better.