‘Coda’: Familiar Story Gets Elevated by Star-Making Performance [Sundance]

“CODA,” which stands for Child of Deaf Adults, features the kind of star-making-performance that can lift just about any mediocre script. Something tells me you’ll be hearing the name of Emilia Jones many times in the years to come.

Jones plays Ruby Rossi, a hearing daughter of deaf parents and sister to a deaf brother, who’s alarm clock goes off every morning at 3am, signifying work with her father (Troy Kotsur) and brother (Daniel Durant) at the Gloucester fisheries before heading out to the local high school where she gets ridiculed for smelling like fish.

Thus commences the coming-of-age narrative, which involves an underdeveloped love story with a boy at school named Miles (Ferdia Walsh-Peelo) and Ruby’s joining a choir class run by an expressive teacher (scene-stealer Eugenio Derbez) who realizes that her stunning singing voice can get her a scholarship at Berkelee. The problem is that back home she’s too relied upon as a language interpreter for her family’s business.

You also care about the Rossi family due to the stellar performances from all four actors who play them. Matlin, an Oscar winner in the ‘80s, captures the essence of the mother-daughter bond, especially in a late scene of touching intimacy where she recounts to her daughter the day of her birth. Kotsur is exceptional, with his wide-ranging comedic scenes as the dad who lacks a filter, but there’s also a beautiful sadness behind the character, his face showcasing the kind of palpable working class angst that could easily be part of a post-war Rossellini parable.

The balance between Ruby’s college dreams and family is the film’s cliched dilemma, but writer/director Siân Heder (Tallulah) knows that the conventional narrative strands within her film can be blown to smithereens with the exceptional performance she’s been gifted with. Jones is stunning, gifted with a great singing voice, but also the ability to nail gritty authentic realism in a thinly sketched role. She’s that good.

SCORE: B