CODA Review
Continuing our trend of reviewing DHH Movies, Julie and I watched CODA. The movie lives in the space between Deafula; which was written by a member of the Deaf Community and featured all Deaf actors, and Children of a Lesser God; which was written by a member of the hearing world and featured but one Deaf actress. The title is an acronym meaning Child of Deaf Adults. I’ve read enough about Deaf Culture to know that being a CODA can be a heavy burden and I was interested in seeing how it would play out.
As with Deafula, the movie starts with another long, silent, panning shot. This time in the stead of a cityscape, we’re treated to a ride over the ocean. Which sets the stage for the plot of the movie: a Deaf family living in Glocester makes that area’s traditional living; fishing. The family consists of a mother (Jackie), father (Frank), son (Leo), and daughter (Ruby); the last of which is the only one who is hearing. That long panning shot ends with us on the family’s fishing boat. And right away we saw the difference between Marlee Matlin’s other famous movie, Children of a Lesser God, the signing is captioned.
We don’t meet Marlee until a little later and when we do, Julie said “They always cast her for the Deaf woman roles.” That was the first of many conflicted feelings that arose for us. On the one hand, she’s a fantastic actress and deserves to be cast. But on the other hand, there have to be other actresses that are deserving. The trouble is Hollywood is a business and movies featuring marginalized communities are a risk. So they’re going to play it as safe as possible.
But back to the movie.
Frank, Leo, and Ruby are signing, which I just mentioned are captioned for us non-ASL speakers. Ruby happens to be signing while she pulls fish out of the net. But quietly. So quietly, I checked my hearing aids. That was a trend that continued throughout the movie: speech in the hearing world tends to be softer and when that “speech” is signs, there is no sound at all. (I think.) Julie and I realized we do rely on our ears whilst watching movies. We are able to hear some and use the captions to fill in the gaps. Those scenes completely in ASL, were hard for us because we’re so used to being able to hear at least a smidgen. (Which is the technical turn. No. Not really.)
These two challenges popped up early and often. So much so that Julie was getting aggravated. This movie was about the Deaf Community, which isn’t our community. I agree with her grievance. Hollywood playing it safe means that movies about hearing loss are actually movies about deaf gain. They’re about culturally Deaf people and since we’re medically deaf people we can’t tell if we’re missing something or if the sound is muted intentionally. It was kind of stressful!
All that said, the movie was phenomenal. As a writer, I found the plot predictable (there’s the Hollywood safe play again). The actors were amazing and that allowed me to get over myself and really enjoy the flick. I want to talk about a number of scenes that wouldn’t have worked as well as they did with lesser actors. So from here down…
Beware! Here Be Spoilers!
The dad loves Gansta Rap because how how bass-heavy it is. Which of course leads to a scene where he’s blasting it whilst pickup Ruby up from school. Cue the embarrassment! (Incidentally, if you want to see, and feel, the haptic aspect of sound, check out Tactus!)
Speaking of embarrassing, Ruby is studying at home with her crush when they’re interrupted by Ruby’s mom moaning loudly in the other room. She’s not hurt, she’s having sex. Which leads to Ruby and her crush being sat down and lectured, in ASL, about safe sex. Ruby is expected to translate. This is a worse embarrassment than Ruby needing to translate her day’s rash…shall we say “downstairs” to the doctor? That one, does highlight the burden of a CODA I mentioned at the outset. Hospitals should not have to rely on children to translate medical information.
These two scenes are fantastic insight into Deaf Culture. Another insight is how funny they can be. To wit:
“Why did God make farts smell? So Deaf people could enjoy them too!”
A-hem, sorry. That’s my third-grade humor shining through. Moving on…
Even though Ruby’s first language was ASL. She used to get made fun of in school because she had the Deaf accent. That led Julie and I to wonder, since she spends so much time signing, does she have trouble modulating the volume of her voice? As someone who enjoys his solitude, I can spend hours upon hours silent and alone. And when I have to talk to someone after I find my voice is raspy. But back to Ruby
Her choir teacher asks her how music makes her feel. Words escape her. But signs don’t. Faced with such a profound question, she reverts to her first language; ASL.
ASL stresses eye contact. Which made the practicing the duet scene a wee bit confusing. She’s practicing with her crush but can’t sign looking him in the eye. So they have to sing, back-to-back. Maybe that’s because she straddles the Deaf and Hearing worlds.
The conflict that set the last act of the movie off was Ruby not being on the boat when the observer who was there to make sure they weren’t violating any laws. When the observer finds out they’re Deaf, she calls the Coast Guard. Who hails them do. Which they don’t hear. And they’re boarded for “operating recklessly”. The reckless activity? Their being Deaf.
Their license is suspended and they’re fined. They’re then required to have a hearing person on board. I was torn about this. I saw where they’re coming from. There is a risk when no one on board can hear. But then I stopped myself. That’s an audist attitude. As the son showed us earlier in the movie when he flirted via text, there is technology to level the playing field.
That scene set up the first time I was brought to tears.
Ruby, naturally, is blamed for not being there. And when she’s sulking in her room her mom comes to talk. Ruby asks her: “Do you ever wish I was Deaf? The mom’s answer? “Yes.” She then explains she feared not being able connect with a hearing child. What’s more, she was afraid she’d fail as a mother.
Powerful, honest, stuff.
Two more scenes and I’ll let you get back to your day.
The first is when the family comes to see Ruby sing, first with the entire choir and then with her duet partner. The choir scene had some funny moments, which the family missed entirely. They were too far from the stage to read lips. They look around confused. I related hard to that. Every time I’m in a group setting, I miss a joke or twelve. When laughter erupts, I feel adrift.
Then the movie shifts to the duet and it shifts perspective: the sound is muted. They used the same perspective on the boat with the Coast Guard. With that on my mind, it made this scene more powerful. Instead of watching their daughter, they’re looking around the audience to see how well their daughter is performing. It showed how isolating people without normal hearing can feel even in a crowd. I related that that as well.
The last scene is her audition at Berklee.
She has stage fright and after a false start she starts again. Slowly gaining confidence. Then her family appears in the balcony. They subscribe the Julie school of rule-following and snuck up there. When Ruby sees them, she begins to sign as well as sign.
It’s such a beautiful scene. ASL is such an expressive language. It made the song that much more powerful.
Representation,
I’m still searching for my own.
Some movies come close.
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