Vital Topics: Social Work & Film
by SaraKay Smullens, MSW, LCSW, DCSW, CGP, CFLE, BCD
At a time of relentless challenge on every conceivable front, coupled by a merciless heatwave, escalating diaper prices, a recall of peanut butter, and vanishing tampons (Lordy!), there is reprieve in sight. Grab a cold drink, put your feet up, and watch the multiple award winning (three Oscars, including Best Picture, and far more) film CODA, an acronym for “child of deaf adults.”
This restorative experience is made possible through the off-the-chart talent of writer and director Sian Heder (whose 2016 Tallulah is a must see) and a brilliantly selected cast, which includes Emilia Jones, Troy Kotsur, Daniel Durant, Marlee Matlin, Ferdia Walsh-Peelo, and Eugenio Derbez. Heder adapted CODA from the 2014 French dramedy set in rural France, “La Famille Bélier,” changing the setting to Gloucester, Massachusetts.
CODA is a coming of age film, as well as a fairy tale of sorts, which adroitly confronts a universal familial challenge. Can children chart their individual path, one far different from their parents’ wish, and still maintain parental love? This is a struggle social workers know well, one greatly complicated when parents expect their children not only to live as they wish, but also to care for them as they do so.
The vehicle for this examination is a sensitive and enlightened depiction of the world of the Deaf (ed. note: see the National Association of the Deaf FAQs on deafness-related terms and when to capitalize the word Deaf) through the Rossi family, where three major portrayals are brought to life by three deaf artists. The lead, British actor Emilia Jones, though not deaf, studied ASL (American—not British—Sign Language) intensely for nine months and during filming spent most evenings with her co-star “family,” where she only signed and never verbally spoke.
Although CODA features a deaf family, and in extraordinary moments offers those of us who hear profound understanding and insights into deafness, the film (in contrast to Sound of Metal’s 2021 probing examination) is not about deafness per se. Rather, it is a portrait of the universality of the hopes, dreams, and challenges all families share, as well as a demonstration of what unabashed love is—between a couple, between parents and their children, and beyond—and its potential for magic, but also for suffocation.
From its first moments, viewers will be assured of CODA’s predictable flow: all falls into place without loose ends, and good will prevail. The critics who condescend this approach as “formulaic,” “calculated,” “conventional,” or “sentimental” do not appreciate the essence and purpose of this film. Despite its predictability, the film offers marvelous moments of heart-rendering surprise, coupled by authentic hope. These specifics will not be revealed.
As CODA begins, the Rossis, a third generation fishing family, are hard at work, completely in sync on their old worn-to-a-frazzle boat—an immediate foreshadowing that change must (and will) happen. We meet high school senior Ruby (Emilia Jones), her dad Frank (Troy Kotsur, well recognized and lauded in Deaf theatre), and older brother Leo (Daniel Durant, who like Kotsur is deaf). Ruby’s mother, Jackie, is the gifted, sensual, and charismatic Marlee Matlin.
Ruby opens the film and hearts, singing with joyful, natural, unschooled abandon to a record of Etta James’ “Something’s Got a Hold on Me.” (Something surely does, but at this point, Ruby is clueless about what that something is.) As the only family member who can hear and speak, much to the chagrin of her older brother Leo, Ruby is the family’s conduit to the hearing, speaking world.
Ruby is also exhausted. Up at the crack of dawn to work on the boat and then bike to school, she does not recognize her talent and has never considered professional voice training. She joins the glee club because she has a crush on class heart-throb Miles Patterson (Ferdia Walsh-Peelo). Through this choice, we meet glee club teacher Bernardo Vollalobos, “Mr. V” (played by Eugenio Derbez), a lovable caricature and a joy to behold and experience. And wait until you see his understated, exquisite Victorian style home.
Mr. V discovers Ruby’s talent and finds a way to ensure that Ruby and Miles will sing together, in more ways than one. Further, he encourages an audition for a scholarship at his alma mater, Boston’s Berklee College of Music, causing a consuming rift with her family, one exemplified by Jackie’s piercing question to Ruby: “If I was blind, would you want to paint?”
CODA audition
Events move quickly. We witness the rocky romance of Ruby and Miles and the cruel acting out of immature teens. We condemn the manipulative fish market wholesalers who have taken advantage of the Rossi family since the days when Ruby, as a child, negotiated on their behalf. We delight in the relationship between Jackie and Frank, highlighted by their phenomenal sex life, which at times provides mind-blowing hilarity, and we applaud Ruby (and Mr. V!) as Ruby begins to recognize both her talent and her individuality. Brava and WOW for the songs selected to highlight this journey, including Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell’s “You’re All I Need To Get By” and Joni Mitchell’s “Both Side’s Now.”
America (and our world) is not merely burned out. We are fried. A film where love outweighs the pain and turmoil of relentless, merciless conflict and violence offers meaningful diversion and reliable relief. Embrace CODA. Recommend it to clients of all ages. Then prepare to giggle quietly, laugh out loud, and experience a lump in your throat. When you least expect it, your eyes may mist. And, if you are not used to sobbing unexpectedly, you may (as I did, both times I saw it) burst into tears. But these will not be tears of despair or frustration. They will be tears of joy.
SaraKay Smullens, MSW, LCSW, DCSW, CGP, CFLE, BCD, whose private and pro bono clinical social work practice is in Philadelphia, is a certified group psychotherapist and family life educator. She is a recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award (2004) and the Social Worker of the Year (2018) from the Pennsylvania chapter of NASW, and the 2013 NASW Media Award for Best Article. In 2018, she was one of five graduates of the University of Pennsylvania School of Social Policy and Practice selected for the school’s inaugural Hall of Fame. SaraKay is the author of Burnout and Self-Care in Social Work (2nd Edition).