CODA

Triviality with a heart. Another teenager wants to leave her family that needs her so that she can achieve something more and apply her talent. And so they deal with it, but perhaps for the first time in an American film with deaf characters and sign language. Though the film mirrors the 2014 European original The Belier Family in terms of subject matter and key scenes, it adds a lot of ideas and is flawlessly directed and acted as a whole. The Oscar for best picture? CODA wasn’t made for the purpose of winning it, but it was made by a woman and it depicts the lives of the disabled with the aforementioned heart and storytelling inventiveness, so it had all of the prerequisites. (05/06/2022)

CODA is a fairly faithful remake of the French comedy The Bélier Family. Director and screenwriter Siân Heder further developed the supporting characters in particular and chose deaf actors to play the roles of the deaf, so we can enjoy watching the excellent Troy Kotsur. With his relaxed performance, Kotsur greatly contributes to the authenticity of the scenes from the life of the deaf. Those scenes are in fact more authentic than Ruby’s fantastically easy transformation from a timid outsider into a capable young singer. Without the trio of non-stereotypical deaf characters, CODA would be just another banal flick about growing up and chasing the (American) dream. The central conflict between the family and singing is not enough to carry the film for two hours and it doesn’t create much tension, since we know how everything will turn out in the end. In order to maintain the comfortable atmosphere, the filmmakers don’t put any major obstacles in the way of the likable characters. On the contrary, they make everything as easy as possible for them. At school, Ruby affectionately gazes at a classmate. A few scenes later, she is chosen to sing a duet with him. Though Ruby sang only for herself before joining the choir, it sounds from the start as if she has had voice training. Other potential complications also easily disappear. Is the family being exploited in the fish trade? No worries, they’ll just start their own business from one day to the next. Ruby can't afford to pay for further education? No problem, here’s a scholarship. The pianist doesn't know the song Ruby chose? Someone will surely show up to fill in for her. The main thing is not to stress out about it. The Rossi’s, as bearers of nothing but positive qualities, don’t deserve any major troubles. Other than the fact that they work with their hands and are deaf, we learn practically nothing about them. It’s as if they live in a vacuum devoid of politics, culture and religion. The environment of deaf members of the working class serves only as a superfluous backdrop for one teenager’s inspiring story. However, it’s possible that the stylistic caution and subordination to clichés is an effective way of making the life of a community that is rarely seen in the media digestible for a broader audience. In any case, if CODA works despite its lack of directorial invention and minimal distinctiveness, then it works not as a film about the deaf (who are merely staffage in the hearing-abled protagonist’s mediocre story), but as a dramedy in which everything is calculated to elicit tears or laughter. 65% (03/31/2022)

This movie is all so kind of sweet, charming, and irresistible. However, suppose you take away the particular backgrounds of the characters, it also has a totally banal plot you have seen countless times before, and that could not surprise anyone who watches this. (12/25/2021)