CODA (2021 film)

In Gloucester, Massachusetts, a culturally Deaf family runs a fishing business. Ruby, who is 17 years old and the only hearing family member, helps her Deaf parents and brother with the business. In high school, she joins the choir club, where she is attracted to her duet partner and finds a passion for singing. Her choirmaster encourages her to consider music school, and she has to decide between helping her family and pursuing her goal.[1]

The cast includes:[1]

• Emilia Jones as Ruby Rossi
• Eugenio Derbez as Bernardo Villalobos
• Troy Kotsur as Frank Rossi
• Ferdia Walsh-Peelo as Miles
• Daniel Durant as Leo Rossi
• Marlee Matlin as Jackie Rossi
• Amy Forsyth as Gertie
• Kevin Chapman as Brady

CODA, written and directed by Sian Heder, is an English-language remake of the French-language film La Famille Bélier, which was released in 2014 and was successful at the French box office. Philippe Rousselet was one of the original film's producers, and he had the rights to do a remake. Heder said, "They were interested in adapting the film, but they wanted someone to make it unique and take the premise from the original and, also, reinvent it." She learned American Sign Language while writing the script since 40% of it was in ASL.[2]

Heder first cast Marlee Matlin in CODA, describing the casting as an opportunity for Matlin to play against type, her previous roles having been "'put-together' and classy characters". Heder said, "Marlee, in real life, is much more funny, and she has a dirty sense of humor. This (role) was a working-class fisherman’s wife, and she has a lot of elements of her personality that were very right for this character." Matlin used her connections with Deaf West Theatre in Los Angeles, California to help Heder find additional deaf actors. Heder saw Troy Kotsur in a Deaf West production and cast him as the fisherman and father. She cast Daniel Durant after finding him through auditions. Matlin, Kotsur, and Durant were already familiar with each other through their collaboration on the 2006 Broadway musical Spring Awakening.[2]

The director also auditioned hundreds of teenage girls before casting Emilia Jones as the hearing member of the deaf family. Jones took voice lessons and learned ASL for nine months before filming started. Heder also chose to cast Eugenio Derbez as the girl's choirmaster, seeing him as a fit for her "amalgamation of Heder’s college rhythm teacher and her high school drama and English teachers".[2]

By May 2019, the companies Pathé Films and Vendôme Group had formed a film production partnership to develop and produce English-language films, with the first being CODA. The film was shot on location in Gloucester, Massachusetts.[3] Heder hired a rotating group of ASL interpreters that facilitated communication with signing and speaking among the cast and crew.[2]

CODA had its world premiere on January 28, 2021 at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival as one of the opening-day films.[1] At Sundance, it is playing in the US Dramatic Competition.[4] IndieWire wrote, "[Heder] has reportedly crafted a crowd-pleasing tearjerker whose commercial promise will easily spark a bidding war between theatrical distributors and deep-pocketed streamers."[5] Shortly after, Apple TV+ acquired distribution rights to the film for a festival-record $25 million.[6]

At Sundance, CODA won the U.S. Grand Jury Prize, U.S. Dramatic Audience Award, and a Special Jury Ensemble Cast Award. The film's director Sian Heder won Best Director in the U.S. Dramatic section.[7]

The review aggregator website Metacritic surveyed 14 critics and assessed 11 reviews as positive and three as mixed. It gave an aggregate weighted score of 75 out of 100, which it said indicated "generally favorable reviews".[8] The similar website Rotten Tomatoes surveyed 69 critics and, categorizing the reviews as positive or negative, assessed 66 as positive and six as negative for a 92% rating. Among the reviews, it determined an average rating of 7.7 out of 10.[9]

• Gloucester, Massachusetts § Film
• List of films featuring the deaf and hard of hearing

• CODA at IMDb
• CODA at Rotten Tomatoes
• CODA at Metacritic