i was honestly terrified in the beginning act where Ruben first starts to experience his hearing loss and you hear all the muffled noises from his point of view. losing a sense you're so accustomed to is an experience i've thought about but hopefully will never experience. i recently (like 3 weeks ago) was made aware of Riz Ahmed in Four Lions and he is great here as well. really showing the mounting frustration/anger and slow realization of the absolute powerlessness you feel when life throws you one of those curve balls.
Joe's work that he writes for Ruben on the whiteboard is to "learn how to be deaf" and at the start we can see his reluctance because of the denial that he's "not really like them" i.e. not completely deaf and he's still holding on to that hope of getting the implants and returning to normalcy. and then he has a moment with that kid on the slide where i think it's either that the kid was also not completely deaf and could somewhat hear the rhythmic banging on the slide or was feeling the vibrations and mimicking him but it triggers a phase where he decides to assimilate more with the community. i see the comments about the pacing/wishing it showed more of the process after this scene but i guess i didn't feel it as much. the next scene shows him signing and conversing with other people so i'm guessing a somewhat significant amount of time had passed since it seemed like he was at a comfortable level with the language.
so i always watch movies with subtitles but decided to turn them off for this movie during one of the early scenes where the sound becomes distant and muffled. but i saw that apparently, the filmmakers intended for the film to be viewed with subtitles and it was shown that way in festivals? i did notice that early on, even with the subtitle option turned off, the sign language was never being subbed but after the scene with the kid on the slide, the signing starts being subtitled mirroring Ruben's own understanding. reminded me of The Tribe where everything is signed but there are no subtitles at all.
it seems like the effectiveness of cochlear implants is like most things where it varies from person to person but i do wonder how many of the cases end up like Ruben's where it may be preferable to the individual to just not hear anything at all. Joe's reaction to the news of Ruben's surgery makes sense to me because he had started believing that Ruben was committed to staying with the deaf community (talking about future prospects of working with his organization/the kids) but he saw the surgery as Ruben's "relapse" moment and he felt he would be a negative influence to the rest of the community. although i am curious how much Joe actually believed Ruben was fully committed since I'm assuming he locked the door to his room with Internet access because he figured Ruben was sneaking into it. maybe he let himself believe and felt that much more affected by the "betrayal". Maybe for a short while, Ruben himself believed it. Like after the conversation with Joe about the future job, he looks up Lou and then sells off all his stuff to get the money for the surgery like the conversation reminded him what he originally wanted. If you compare his scenes with the member who got the tattoo, their initial discussion is entirely signed between them but when they're on the RV after he's decided about the surgery, he's speaking a lot more with minimal signing like he's giving up what he learned there and preparing to go back to his old life.