Seventeen-year-old Ruby Rossi is a CODA, a child of deaf adults, and the only hearing member of a family of fishermen in Gloucester, Massachusetts. Music teacher Bernardo Villalobos recognises Ruby's raw talent and encourages her to pursue a scholarship to Berklee College of Music.
A remake of the 2014 French film La Famille Bélier, writer/director Siân Heder's smartly judged crowd-pleaser distinguishes coming-of-age conventions with rich reserves of salty wit and choppy feeling. Emilia Jones stars as "child of deaf adults" (CODA) Ruby Rossi, the 17-year-old hearing deckhand for her family's Massachusetts fishing operation. But when Ruby's choirmaster, Bernardo Villalobos (Eugenio Derbez), recognises and begins to nurture her vocal talents, tensions build between the teenager's passions and her family commitments. Even if you can see where this is going, Heder and her cast summon the character nuances needed to make the film sing. Deaf actors Troy Kotsur and Marlee Matlin make warm, ribald work of Ruby's loving parents, complemented by Derbez's wry, tangy take on inspirational-teacher clichés. Meanwhile, Jones leads with appealingly awkward, expressive conviction all the way to the genuinely affecting climax: when the inevitable montage and its accompanying tears arrive, they feel earned.
| role | name |
|---|---|
| Ruby Rossi | Emilia Jones |
| Jackie Rossi | Marlee Matlin |
| Frank Rossi | Troy Kotsur |
| Leo Rossi | Daniel Durant |
| Miles | Ferdia Walsh-Peelo |
| Bernardo Villalobos | Eugenio Derbez |
| role | name |
|---|---|
| Director | Sian Heder |
