Coda

Coda

Introduction

Coda is Siân Heder’s brilliant film about Ruby, a Child Of Deaf Adults (CODA), and her family, as she struggles to balance her responsibilities helping out the family and pursuing her dream of singing. Coda may seem like your traditional coming-of-age film and possesses the same beats and elements that we have all seen before, but it has a unique twist to it. In the hands of the wrong filmmaker, the themes and subject matter discussed in the film could have been handled disrespectfully and even inappropriately. However, in the hands of Siân Heder and the insanely talented ensemble cast, Coda beautifully enlightens the audience about the deaf community and allows us to gain a deeper knowledge about the community. Coda manages to capture the beauty of family and music, the struggles and perseverance of youth, all the while maintaining faithful to its roots of being a film about the deaf community - their struggles, hardships, and their beauty and uniqueness. 

An Exploration Of Familial Themes

I’m honestly a sucker for family drama and family stories, so I was excited to watch this film. After coming to know that this won Best Picture at the Oscars, my expectations were raised, and I feared that it would cause me to enjoy the film less. Well, it did not. Coda is a truly beautiful film, and manages to tackle its themes very well. Filial piety and familial bonds, ambition, music, responsibility. Coda tries to explore these themes, and manages to bring them all together really well without ever feeling like it is too much. 

Cast

I have to talk about the cast. First of all, the main family is crazy talented. Emilia Jones as Ruby is the standout performance for me. She really is asked to do so much in this film. Not only is she asked to deliver a heartfelt and raw performance, but she is also asked to express the character through ASL (American Sign Language), which she had to learn for the film. I’ll touch on ASL more later, but I wanted to give Jones the respect she truly deserves, she truly knocks it out of the park. The rest of the family; Troy Kotsur, Marlee Martin and Daniel Durant, are wonderful as well, but since they perform through ASL, I will go deeper in depth into their performance later as well. The supporting performance by Eugenio Derbez really surprised me as well, and his transformation as a character within the first 20 minutes or so truly shows how good of an actor he is. 

Coda's cast is excellent throughout the film's 111 minute runtime

Shedding Light On The World's Deaf Community

Now, I want to discuss what this film does for ASL and to the deaf community. Not much spotlight has been put on deaf actors until Coda appeared, with one of Coda’s cast members, Marlee Martin, being the only Oscar-winning deaf actor in history (until Troy Kotsur won his Oscar for Best Supporting Actor). This film is a monumental victory for the deaf community, as it sheds so much light on just what the deaf community has to face in daily life. The film effectively conveys how they struggle to connect with the rest of society, and the discrimination that they can face sometimes. Be it Ruby getting bullied because her family is deaf, or the rest of the family being looked down upon because they are deaf, Siân Heder unapologetically shows the audience the reality in a respectful way. 

The struggles that members of the deaf community may face are reflected in the film

Shedding Light On ASL and Sign Language

Something else this film does is shed light on ASL. Some people may believe that ASL is using hands to communicate, when it really is more than that, which can be seen from the incredibly strong performances of the main cast. ASL is more than using your hands, it also involves using your facial expressions. Typically, actors are able to convey the emotions of the characters through speech; through their tone and their speech pace, as well as complementing it with their facial expressions or body language. For deaf actors, they are not able to do it as well, as their speech is not as strong, which is why they have to rely more on their facial expressions. And my goodness, does the cast do exceptionally well. At every point of the film, the cast is fantastic at using their facial expressions to go along with their hands and beautifully use the language of ASL to various dramatic effects. Be it comedic, dramatic or serious, the cast delivers again and again until the very final scene, where Emilia Jones’ Ruby signs “I Love You”. It really is something to behold, and I have never seen such unique excellence on screen before. 

The film is full of heartfelt moments only made possible through the beauty of ASL

The Film's Shortcomings, Conclusion

By no means is this a perfect film. There are some inconsistencies that I picked up while watching the film, and certain areas of the plot are touched on once and never again, which I wish was not the case. However, I have not been able to get this film out of my mind since I saw it. I have been constantly thinking about the film, writing about the film, and listening to the music in the film. Many people see Coda as a generic coming-of-age story and as something we have all seen before, but I think otherwise. I stand by this film, as I sincerely believe that it really is of huge importance to a community that I have not been exposed to much before. In conclusion, Siân Heder did a great job with Coda, and the film absolutely deserves all my love and respect. Top-notch acting, a terrific script and music with a greater meaning behind it never fails to produce something special.