I added this onto my watchlist more out of sense of obligation than anything else as it was one of the big winners at last year’s Oscars. For a while this film fell on the wrong side of being too sickly sweet for me but it did eventually win me over when it focused on how the main character’s ability to hear is making her deaf family too dependent on her. I note that this is a remake of a French film but the original wasn’t notable enough to register on my radar. Out of curiosity, I sought out its trailer to take a look and yeah, it’s so similar down to the sex jokes that there’s no point in watching it. This not being a very consequential film anyway, I’m actually kind of glad that I watched this American version as its production values are visibly better.
Ruby Rossi is the only hearing member of her family consisting also of her parents, Frank and Jackie, and elder brother, Leo. Her family makes a living fishing from their boat and she helps them in the early mornings before school. One day she signs up for choir as an extracurricular activity largely because she has a crush on one of the boys, Miles, in it and she enjoys singing. She is nervous about starting to sing as she has never participated in any group activities without her family before but she has enough talent that her music teacher singles her and Miles out for a duet. He also encourages Ruby to consider auditioning to enter the Berklee College of Music. Meanwhile her family is having financial difficulties due to the low prices being offered by the wholesaler and the increasing costs of regulation. Eventually they attempt to start selling their fish on their own and help others do so but they need Ruby to act as their interpreter. The increasing demands on her time forces her to choose between supporting her family and continuing on her budding musical education.
With such elements as an entire family of the deaf who are also plucky independent fishermen, a sweet teenage romance story and crowd-pleasing singing scenes, it’s no wonder that the Academy couldn’t resist voting for this. It’s a little too much for me frankly and this would have been a more serious film if it left out the duet and romance to focus more completely on Ruby’s relationship with her family. The strongest parts are her family members coming to realize what a big deal her musical talent is. Being unable to hear, they are forced to instead watch the reactions of the other people around them. I like the character of Leo as well who insists that Ruby can’t be stuck interpreting for them her whole life and that they’ll find some way to get on with their lives without her. It’s an admirably positive portrayal of the fulfilling lives that the deaf are able to lead while also asking those who can hear to be mindful and sympathetic of the silent world they live in.
As a pleasant, feel-good film, it deliberately skips over any of the truly harsh difficulties of life. The family’s financial worries and communications problems are resolved without seemingly too much difficulty offscreen. Ruby’s hardest time in life should be when she first started to learn to speak and go to school as a child. This film makes references to her awkward speech and the bullying this led to but that was all long in the past. It’s great that she’s confident about standing up for herself that she’s not responsible when her family’s fishing boat is fined because she wasn’t helping them out that morning. But it feels unearned and unrealistic that she arrives at that point with so little drama. I enjoy happy and positive stories myself but this has so little conflict and hardship that it feels like a children’s movie.
On balance, I’d still recommend this as the scenes of Ruby connecting with her family are worth it and it’s a good portrayal of life from the perspective of the deaf. Yet it’s still a fairly unambitious film that I doubt will be remembered for very long. I haven’t watched all of last year’s contenders for Best Picture yet but I’m pretty sure this is one of the weakest among them from an artistic perspective and makes for yet another indicator of how the Academy mostly opts for crowd pleasing fare.