I Saw CODA

Have you ever seen a movie, drama or comedy, about a family and its challenges that leaves you smiling at the end and makes your heart feel light? A movie like THE MIRACLE WORKER, HANNAH AND HER SISTERS or Vincente Minnelli's MEET ME IN ST. LOUIS? Well, CODA is one of those movies. CODA stands for Child of Deaf Adults -- and that's exactly what the main character, high schooler Ruby Rossi, is. She's the only one in her working class New England family of four who can hear. Her parents and her older brother are deaf. They all can sign and Ruby is the family interpreter.

The males in this close-knit family are fishermen. Disciplined, responsible Ruby gets up at 3:00 in the morning to go out with them and interpret for them when they bring their daily catch back to be weighed and priced. Then she goes to school. The family relies heavily on young Ruby. A challenge arises when Ruby is encouraged to apply to a prestigious music school to pursue talent. That would mean having to leave her Gloucester home and relocate to Boston. Also, dad's fishing community is faced with a change that could severely affect its income.

I saw segments about CODA with its cast of deaf actors playing deaf characters. The pieces understandably had an accent on that breakthrough casting and the deafness portrayed in the film. But those pieces didn't tell me that this sweet film is also funny, ethnic inclusive, moving and very musical. It has a generous scoop of classic R&B tunes plus a Joni Mitchell classic. When the film begins, we see a fishing boat at sea. On it are the Rossi dad and son and Ruby. While helping with the fish, she starts singing to herself. She will make you say, "Ooooh, girl! You could be a finalist on AMERICAN IDOL or THE VOICE." She is that good, but no one in her family can hear her.

At school, Ruby signs up for the choir. The music teacher/choirmaster is Bernardo Villalobos, a native of Mexico City and a stylish man with a pronounced accent. He has the students performing R&B tunes. She's shy in class, however he detects the real talent in her. In one scene, he asks Ruby "How do you feel when you sing?" We know her true answer would be the one Judy Garland as band singer Esther Blodgett gave early in A STAR IS BORN: "I feel most alive when I'm singing." But Ruby is too shy to say that.

Mr. Villalobos is from Mexico City but he is not a caricature. He's a strict yet committed teacher who respects talent. He is to Ruby what Annie Sullivan is to young Helen Keller in THE MIRACLE WORKER. He brings out her voice. He's played with humor, wisdom and compassion by Eugenio Derbez, a big star in Mexican cinema who is now crossing over to American films.

Ruby's father, Frank, is played to Troy Kotsur who got a well-deserved Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination. Tall, scraggly, unsophisticated Frank loves his family, his job, an occasional joint and gangsta rap. He can't hear it, but when he plays it in the car, the bassline has his "ass vibrating." He gets an easily curable inconvenience. Ruby has to accompany her dad at the doctor's office and interpret for him when he signs to the doctor "My nuts are on fire." Frank may seem like a hot mess. Yet, he's as devoted, loving and, ultimately, unselfish a father as Mr. Smith in MEET ME IN ST. LOUIS. His wife is wonderfully portrayed by Marlee Matlin, Best Actress Oscar winner for 1986's CHILDREN OF A LESSER GOD. Then there's Emilia Jones. absolutely marvelous as the smart, loving, frustrated, talented Ruby -- the teen with a golden talent that no one in her family can hear.

Dig this. Actress Emilia Jones is from London. CODA has memorable scenes both funny and touching, Ruby brings her choir partner home to rehearse for a school show only to be embarrassed by the sounds of her parents making love in their room. Later, her dad explains to her choir partner/potential boyfriend that his middle-aged wife is still hot. There's a lovely scene with Rub and her mother as her mother reveals how she felt right after Ruby was born and doctors determined that the baby was not deaf. Ruby in the family's backyard singing a song so that her father can "hear" it is a beautiful scene and so is Ruby's rendition of Joni Mitchell's "Both Sides Now" at a music school audition.

CODA doesn't just show us lives of some deaf people, it brings us into their world. This is a film that reminds us that some of the most extraordinary people we ever could meet are the ordinary people like those in our community. The last 15 minutes of CODA made happy tears stream down my face. I highly recommend seeing it. Don't be surprised if it wins the Oscar for Best Picture.

Based on a foreign film, CODA was written and directed by Sian Heder. Viva female filmmakers!