"CODA" a winning crowd-pleaser that even the stone-hearted should love

CODA (2021)

“CODA” immediately became a Sundance favorite and one of Apple’s distribution deals for a festival record of $25 million two days after its premiere, and it’s easy to see why. Standing for Child of Deaf Adults, this family drama (based on a 2014 French film, “La famille Bélier,” that wasn’t released in the U.S.) is the biggest crowd-pleaser that ever crowd-pleased. Writer-director Sian Heder (2016’s “Tallulah”) makes the “girl with talent” formula within the story of a deaf family look effortless, even if it follows the beats we expect. It all just works, being signed, sealed, and delivered by wonderful performances. 

The Rossi family is deaf, except for daughter Ruby (Emilia Jones), a high school senior. Living in the coastal Massachusetts town of Gloucester, she has helped her father (Troy Kotsur) and older brother Leo (Daniel Durant) operate a fishing boat by handling the radio calls and dealing with the fishmonger who buys their catch. Being the only hearing member of her family, Ruby has been the rock and has felt obligated to be their interpreter. But she likes to sing. When Ruby joins the school choir (partially to follow her crush Miles, played by Ferdia Walsh-Peelo from "Sing Street"), her mother Jackie (Marlee Matlin) doesn’t understand why. The choir teacher, Mr. V (Eugenio Derbez), sees raw talent in Ruby once she gets over her nerves and sees her full potential to the point of hoping she will audition at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, Mr. V’s alma mater. Once her family further runs into some financial troubles and her literal voice is needed to save the family business, does Ruby hold herself back or follow her dreams?

Earnest, kind, winning, and open-hearted, “CODA” is a “feel-good” movie in the best sense — you’ll laugh, you’ll cry, but seriously. The tension between Ruby and her family is easily the most involving, and as familiar as Ruby’s “will-she-stay-or-will-she-go?” dilemma may seem, it’s satisfyingly handled. Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell’s duet “You’re All I Need to Get By” figures heavily into the proceedings, but the lyrics are used sparingly. Sian Heder captures two wonderful scenes through Ruby’s family’s ears, one where they look around at the reactions of an audience at the school concert to know how to react (and sign about grocery shopping) and another where Ruby uses ASL during her big audition in the Berklee auditorium. Finally, a moment between Ruby and her father, who wants to understand how much singing means to his daughter, is powerfully moving.

Emilia Jones gives an assured lead performance as Ruby with her natural, grounded presence, and she insinuates herself beautifully into a family dynamic with Troy Kotsur, Daniel Durant, and Marlee Matlin, who are all excellent in their own right. Amy Forsyth lends nice supporting work as Ruby’s bestie Gertie, who becomes involved with Leo, and Eugenio Derbez (2018's "Overboard") could have been over-the-top with his usually hammy shtick, but he finds a middle ground and makes Mr. V enormously likable.

Director Heder never lets her film hit a false or mawkish note. Some of the lightly bawdy moments of humor feel closer to a sitcom than real life, but if that’s as critical as one can get, your movie is doing a lot right. There will always be stone-hearted contrarians who somehow resist a crowd-pleaser, but “CODA” makes it extremely hard. It’s the kind of movie that you can’t wait for people to see and embrace.

Grade: B +

Apple TV+ is releasing “CODA” (111 min.) to stream on August 13, 2021.