Coda is a beautiful feel-good movie that explores uncharted territory. It voices a community that has forever found itself not taken as seriously as it should be. To put that on a global scale and that too as a frontrunner amongst the most prestigious accolades of cinema is the best way possible to get them heard. This movie is able to do that by touching the right chords and making the whole world realize the apt usage of power through the extraordinary conduit of cinema.
The Coda movie is about a teenager with a voice trying to make herself heard in a house where everyone is deaf. This plays out both literally and figuratively, for her family is also deaf to her needs. Them being totally dependent on her for their survival renders all her dreams nugatory.
With such a thoughtful backdrop, the story of Coda already is poetic. As if nature tried to blend in a valuable lesson by playing a trickster.
Allegory inside Coda movie
On a personal level, I don’t think the movie is only targeted at a deaf community but rather at people and their behavioral psychology. Even if you take away the deafness quotient, the movie still soars in with a story of children fighting for their voice. How parents are always oblivious to how good their children are in reality, for they have always known their children to be incompetent primarily coz they have seen them fumble with mistakes all their lives. In those comparisons, the parents are never witnessing their child’s true talents but watching them through the eyes of others.
For a mother, a child can never really grow up. She forever walks with an apprehension that the big bad world is out there to hurt her child. That something bad might happen and her child isn’t ready for the world. To her, he/she would forever remain a baby.
For a father, it is no different. Having his children around makes him feel that at least he would be there to look after them. If anything goes kaput, he is right there to pick his child up to set things in motion again as he has always done.
Talent is an alien word for most parents out there. Primarily because they hail from a world where talent was seldom appreciated or even paid well. How one plans to make money out of talented endeavors, remains a million-dollar question for every parent even today. All of it is whisked well in the movie, with Coda playing the voice of talent alongside his deaf parents who barely have any knowledge about how good she is.
The Listening Impaired
Coda brings to mind the analogy of hearing and listening. Listening can be done with observation and understanding. Hearing is when you are not paying attention. The movie plays this card really well.
You can see how the parents of Ruby even though hearing impaired, were also oblivious to their role in their daughter’s life. They were so lost in their own worlds, that they had barely stopped to listen to what Ruby could have possibly wanted. Forever taken for granted, even Ruby had started believing her role in her parent’s life to be vital. In a way, she was listening impaired too.
But then the time comes when she starts listening to her needs. That’s when the shift of ideas begins to happen. Her brother Leo Rossi played by Daniel Durant understands this very well. He is not allowed to shoulder responsibility because his parents believe him to be one of them. It is not only Ruby’s fight to pursue her dreams, but even Leo’s cry for help, where he wishes to be heard by his parents.
The Direction of Coda
Sian Heder, the director of Coda, has made the movie based on the original French film called La Famille Bélier which was directed by Éric Lartigau. Although it is an adapted flick, a work of art always boils down to its availability to a bigger community.
Sian Heder gives her personal touch by not taking away too much from a tale that basically writes itself owing to its plot. The overall style is that of a feel-good movie where the theme is always kept light and cheerful.
Sian’s direction takes you through the everyday chores of Coda along with her family. It gives a very self-sufficient outlook to a family of deaf people who are portrayed in a very positive light.
If you try to think about it, when was the last time you had seen that happen? When you are living with a condition, an ailment, a deficiency, or even a disease, people often tend to walk in with their perceptions. They assume that it must be a tough life even without caring to peek into the lives of the less fortunate. The general mass conjecture is that ‘they are the suffering community, they must be unhappy’.
What these people fail to fathom is that even though life is tough, some of the basic chores don’t change for anyone. It is about perspective and choosing to be content with the air in their lungs. The important thing is that one is alive, that alone is celebratory per see.
The movie delves into that optimistic viewpoint by showing the characters of Frank Rossi played by Troy Kotsur and Jackie Rossi played by Marlee Matlin in a very positive light. The way they lead their lives fills your heart with joy. All the hearing impaired characters in the movie are depicted as full of life. It is a very positive depiction of a world others have always misunderstood.
Emilia Jones as Ruby Rossi
The heart and soul of the movie, hands down, is Emilia Jones who plays Ruby Rossi to perfection. The disconnect from the fourth wall is so extraordinary that you feel how brilliantly has she worn the skin of Ruby. How perfectly she becomes the character! She wields the right amount of power to make these familial characters all her very own, one can’t help but wonder if acting comes naturally to her.
She is one of those perfectly cast lead characters that does justice to every scene that she is in. You could feel how she paints herself into every world like a still picture in a frame. It is hard to tell her apart. A movie like Coda needed an actor like Emilia, and Emilia Jones simply delivers.
The Final Verdict
Overall Coda is a great watch. A family film that has the power of changing perspectives. It is not a sad movie unlike many others that tries to surface the deaf topic but still retains ample drama to force you to think about the dreams of your children if you are a parent, and about the needs of your parents, if you are a child.
Coda
Pros
- Good Direction
- Great Performances
- Well Written Flick
- Feel Good Movie
Cons
- Had potential to be a gut-wrenching drama
