Writer-director Sian Heder’s CODA opens with music: the voice of one girl — Ruby Rossi (Emilia Jones) — as she sings powerfully over the noise of the fishing boat where she works with her father and brother. Ruby’s singing goes unheard, except by the audience. Ruby is a CODA (Child of Deaf Adults); both of her parents (Troy Kotsur and Marlee Matlin) and her brother (Daniel Durant) are deaf, with her as the only hearing member of the family. She must navigate two worlds, all the while figuring out what she wants her life to be. It’s a family drama and comedy, though at its core, CODA is Ruby’s coming-of-age — she learns to navigate life on her terms and seek out experiences that speak to her own soul.
Ruby is a senior in high school and something of an outcast. In years prior, she’s been bullied for having a deaf family and smelling like fish, since she often spends mornings working on the family’s boat. She has one friend, Gertie (Amy Forsyth), but otherwise keeps to herself. When the two friends have to sign up for their electives, Ruby chooses choir, much to Gertie’s surprise. At this moment, Ruby begins her transformation. The film follows Ruby as she manages responsibilities at school and at home, while seeking an independent identity for herself. As a CODA, Ruby often acts as the connection between the deaf and hearing worlds, translating everything from business discussions in the fishing industry to her parents’ appointment with a doctor about a sexually transmitted infection.
CODA’s strengths are in the film’s ability to tug at familial heartstrings. In Ruby’s relationships with her family, she finds both comfort and friction. In response to the friction, Ruby rebels — a teenage rite of passage. In CODA, however, teenage rebellion does not mean that Ruby goes off on a journey of self-discovery alone. Unlike in many coming-of-age films, Ruby’s parents are primary characters who both provide support for Ruby and narrative tension throughout the film. Highlighting her relationship with her family brings most of the tension in the film; they are dependent on her to navigate the hearing world, but she wants to go on to the next stage in her life.
The film also succeeds in building on Ruby’s dream to become a singer. Mr. V (Eugenio Derbez), Ruby’s choir teacher, is a character whose relationship with Ruby is fully developed on screen — and worth getting invested in. The teacher quickly becomes Ruby’s most trusted adult outside of her family. To her, he’s not just a choir teacher, but also a mentor in self-discovery and pursuit of passions. The scenes between Mr. V and Ruby are raw, honest, and sometimes silly; his investment in her singing is real and creates further tension between Ruby and her family, forcing Ruby to make decisions about how to move forward.
The film’s only failing comes in dealing with side characters. Throughout the film, Ruby develops a relationship with Miles (Ferdia Walsh-Peelo), but the film doesn’t devote meaningful time to this relationship to gain audience investment. This plotline appears to be an afterthought, as if a romance needs to develop between the two characters for it to fully fit into the coming-of-age subgenre. Miles often works as a plot device to move Ruby from scene to scene, conflict to conflict. Similarly, Ruby’s friend Gertie is ever-present throughout the film, but only seen in the periphery as Ruby’s friend and her brother’s girlfriend. It’s disappointing to see this in a film that focuses on Ruby’s moments of self-reckoning, as building connections to the world at large is often paramount in someone’s growth and development.
It’s worth mentioning the care, planning, and activism that went into making CODA and ensuring its accessibility to deaf audiences. Marlee Matlin, who plays Ruby’s mother, is a deaf actress and activist who won an Oscar for Children of a Lesser God. After she was cast, she threatened to leave to ensure that deaf actors would be cast as the deaf characters in the film, even though film financiers did not want to cast deaf actors. Additionally, the film screened with captions, making it accessible to all! Though it should be a common practice to caption films for theater screenings, it is often overlooked. The team working on CODA made sure that their film centered the voices and experiences of the deaf community.
CODA enters the coming-of-age drama fresh-faced, effectively bringing new life and creating space for new narratives. In focusing on family dynamics, CODA leans into how these at-home relationships influence Ruby’s growth and budding independence. It’s her story, but it’s also the story of what it means to be a supportive and loving family, regardless of circumstance.
