FIND YOUR VOICE (CODA)

It's hard for anyone to match the sheer beauty of Joni Mitchell's original version of 'Both Sides Now' - let alone top it.

Frank Sinatra, Glen Campbell, Willie Nelson, Judy Collins, Clannad, Pete Seeger and Neil Diamond have all tried.

However none of them have managed to come near Mitchell's simple but moving rendition.

Towards the end of Sian Heder's Oscar contender 'CODA,' though, Emilia Jones' belts out a fantastic version of the song while signing its lyrics for the deaf.

Like Mitchell's version, it's a modest arrangement with Jones initially accompanied on a piano and it's all the more affecting for it.

'CODA' stands for Children of Deaf Adults, with Jones' playing a talented young singer in a family where everyone else is deaf.

The AppleTV+ film, which is based on a 2014 French film 'La Famille Belier,' has suddenly gained momentum in this year's Oscars race, interrupting what was beginning to look like an inevitable march to Best Picture glory by Jane Campion's 'The Power of the Dog'.

In recent weeks, Heder's film has taken the top prize at the Screen Actors Guild, Hollywood Critics Association and Producers Guild Awards, while Troy Kotsur is now the overwhelming favourite for Best Supporting Actor after his Screen Actors Guild, Independent Spirit, BAFTA and Critics Choice victories.

Emilia Jones also earned a BAFTA Best Actress nomination playing Ruby Rossi, a high school student who, when she isn't singing, serves as the ears for her dad, Troy Kotsur's Frank and her brother Leo, played by Daniel Durant, when they out at sea on their fishing vessel off the coast of Gloucester, Massachusetts.

Family conversations at the dinner table involving Marlee Matlin's mum Linda are conducted using American Sign Language.

Signing ever since she was able to speak, Ruby is the family interpreter, whether they are selling fish to wholesalers who rip them off or attending public meetings.

She also affectionately trades crude insults with her older brother via sign language.

Being the only member of the family who can hear is a heavy responsibility, though - especially when juggling school with the family business.

When her parents pull up in their pick up truck at school blaring hip hop, Ruby also squirms with embarrassment because Frank likes the feeling of the vibrations on his ass.

It becomes an even heavier, though, responsibility for Ruby when she follows the boy in high school she has a crush on, Ferdia Walsh-Peelo's Miles into an audition for a choral group.

Conducted by Eugenio Derbez's flamboyant music teacher Bernardo Villalobos, he quickly notices Ruby's natural talent.

Mr V, as he is known, pushes Ruby into the lead role in the choir and believes she has what it takes to land a place in the prestigious Berklee College of Music in Boston.

But as the demands mount on Ruby to develop that talent, they conflict with her obligation to help the family business.

With Frank and Jackie unable to hear her singing, they have no comprehension of how good Ruby really is and expect her to be there to sign for them when they need her.

'CODA' hits a lot of the beats that you would expect in a film of its nature. 

There's a sweet high school romance, a tale of blossoming talent, a clash of diverging interests between parents and daughter, blue collar angst as the family tries to make a living whilst battling officialdom and also teenage embarrassment at Linda and Frank's behaviour.

As she negotiates these narratives, there are many potential pitfalls for Heder who also wrote the script.

The biggest is undoubtedly the school choir's renditions of songs like David Bowie's 'Starman' and Ruby and Miles' duet 'You're All I Need To Get By'.

It could easily veer into the territory of 'Glee' but somehow 'CODA' manages to avoids all that and turns into a touching drama about musical youths and their imperfect families.

Heder's film feels like an American cousin to John Carney's delightful Dublin pop group tale 'Sing Street' which also starred Walsh-Peelo.

What Heder does especially well is conveying what it must be like to be deaf - particularly in a powerful sequence where Frank, Jackie and Leo attend Ruby's performance at her high school concert.

Unable to hear her sing, they can only gauge how good her voice is by looking at the reaction of the other concertgoers around them.

And then, Heder does something really special - making the audience experience how Ruby's family are experiencing it.

It's a nice artistic touch in a film that otherwise is rather conventional in the way it is filmed by cinematographer, Paula Huidabro.

But with its passionate arguments in sign language and its amusing sequences of teenage embarrassment over her parents' loud lovemaking, the main preoccupation of 'CODA' is on driving forward the plot, with its focus on the growing pains of Ruby.

And while a lot of the territory seems familiar, it nevertheless feels sharp and fresh thanks to the cast.

With three of the four leads deaf, advocacy groups and members of the deaf community have responded positively to the casting and to the film's depiction of deaf people as multi-faceted characters.

The film, however, has been criticised by the young adult author Jenna Beacom for overegging the negative experiences of children of deaf adults and for questioning the competence of deaf people to live and thrive in wider society on their own.

Having broken ground 35 years ago on 'Children of a Lesser God', Matlin, who won the Best Actress Oscar in that film acting opposite William Hurt, stars in another movie which significantly propels how deaf people are portrayed on film.

'CODA' also comes on the back of last year's groundbreaking and more daring Oscar nominated movie about hearing loss, 'Sound of Metal' with Riz Ahmed and it accompanies this year's Best Documentary Short nominee 'Audible' about students at the Maryland High School for the Deaf.

Intelligently adapted by Heder from the original French film, its success ultimately hinges on the quality of its cast.

And on that score, it fares very well.

Jones' performance is sweet but it also has enough grit in it to ensure it never gets sickly.

Not only does the English actress deliver the standout musical moment but she also gels really well with Matlin, Kotsur, Durant, Derbez and Walsh-Peelo.

Marlin and Kotsur deliver compelling performances as Ruby's carefree parents and they also do a hell of a job conveying to a non deaf audience what it is like to operate in a community where others can hear.

Durant impressively captures the frustration of a brother who knows Ruby is in danger of frittering away a great talent out of slavish devotion to her family.

Derbez brings a Latin passion to the part of Mr V, while Walsh-Peelo generously plays second fiddle while tapping into the sweetness of his breakthrough performance in Carney's 'Sing Street'.

Amy Forsyth turns in an enjoyable performance too as Ruby's best friend Gertie who catches Leo's eye.

Thrust into the role of dark horse early during awards season, 'CODA' has become a formidable contender in the race for Best Picture.

It may not be the most cinematically daring of the ten Best Picture nominees this year but it has forced its way into the front of the pack by sporting a massive heart.

Some may feel Heder's film is not ambitious enough. 

But that heart might just carry it all the way to Best Picture glory on Oscars night.

('CODA' premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on January 28, 2021 and was made available for streaming on AppleTV+ on August 13, 2021)