Derbez does what he can with a collection of cookie-cutter dialogue lines, but his scenes don’t always land with the same honesty we see elsewhere in “CODA.” Still, this lapse in judgment feels minor in a movie so affecting, so in touch with its old-fashioned crowd-pleaser character.
If there's one misstep here, it’s how far Heder leans into the inspiring teacher trope with Eugenio Derbez’s Bernardo Villalobos, a character that somehow transmits a sitcom-y artificiality in an otherwise earnest movie. Complicating the matters further is a fellow singer and romantic interest named Miles ( Ferdia Walsh-Peelo from “ Sing Street”), a shy kid with a genuine admiration for Ruby. But when Ruby joins the school choir and discovers her talent for singing, it throws off her balance and puts her at odds with her family, especially when she decides to apply to Boston’s Berklee College of Music, adopting a rehearsal schedule that often clashes with her duties in the family business. When the hearing world becomes cruel or belittling, she steps in, almost with protective instincts, always prioritizing them over herself. For starters, she is all too aware of everything private about her parents, often including their medical conditions and (to her riotous terror), sex life. What Ruby has feels so balanced and awe-inspiring that it takes a minute to recognize just how exhausting the whole arrangement is for the young girl, even though she makes it look easy with maturity and a sense of responsibility beyond her years. Accustomed to being her family’s sign-language-proficient interpreter out in the world as the only hearing member of the Rossi clan, she spends her days translating every scenario imaginable two ways: at town meetings, at the doctor’s office (one early instance of which plays for full-sized laughs thanks to Kotsur’s golden comedic chops) and at the boat where a hearing person must be present to notice the signals and coastal announcements. Heder is quick to give us a realistic taste of Ruby’s routine. Jones is the 17-year-old Ruby, a hardworking high-schooler in the coastal Cape Ann’s Gloucester who habitually wakes up at the crack of dawn every day to help her family-her father Frank (Kotsur) and brother Leo (Durant) and mother Jackie (Matlin)-at their boat and newly found fish sales business. While the family in the well-meaning original were played by hearing cast members (with the exception of the brother brought to life by deaf actor Luca Gelberg), they are all portrayed by real-life deaf performers in Heder’s movie-a sensational group consisting of legendary Oscar winner Marlee Matlin, scene-stealing Troy Kotsur and Daniel Durant-infusing her adaptation with a rare, inherent kind of authenticity. What’s new here-and it makes all the difference in the world-is the cast. Played by the exceptional Emilia Jones (who is blessed with Grade-A pipes), the gifted young girl in question here happens to be one, navigating the intricacies of her identity, passions, and familial expectations, trying to reconcile them without hurting anyone’s feelings, her own included.Īdmittedly, “CODA” is adapted from the French film “La Famille Bélier,” so the idea of it isn’t entirely novel. But by twisting the formula and placing this recognizable story inside a new, perhaps even groundbreaking setting with such loving, acutely observed specificity, she pulls off nothing short of a heartwarming miracle with her film, the title of which is an acronym: Child of Deaf Adult. It’s not that Heder doesn’t embrace the aforesaid conventions for all their comforting worth-she does. Caring, boisterous, and adorned with the hugest of hearts, “CODA” will prove you wrong.
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