In America

"In America" is about an Irish family of four who enter America at the Canadian border, sell their car for money, take up residence in a slum-like walkup in NYC inhabited by losers and druggies, and proceed to do really stupid things like let their little girls eat ice cream across the street unattended or bet all their money on a stupid carney game or enter an unknown black man's apartment while trick or treating. The film continues from there fabricating, manufacturing, and contriving moments with the obvious purpose of evoking emotions...joy, pathos, angst, woe, etc. And it worked. I could go on but anything I write will simply be lost in the wake of plaudits from all corners. "In America" is a hugely popular flick with a good cast, excellent performances, and solid production value recommended for everyone but me. (B)

'In America' is a film about a family of Irish immigrants who move to Manhattan and face some hard times in America. The story is primarily told through the eyes of the little girls, and they go through the hard times of adjusting to a new life while learning loss and gain. There is a sense of magic and cultural identity in the film, and this makes it even much more touching when told through the eyes of the little girls who have had their lives turned upside down in the search for a new and better life in America. In some places, it is a little too sweet and magical, but I don't think it ruins the film because it is told through the eyes of the girl, and I am certain that many more immigrant families went through experiences like this and even worse than this. I also thought that the acting by the little girls was done well. It's a sweet film; it's a little sad, and it's magical. It just made me feel all warm inside. Go see it for yourself and see if you get caught up in the magic as much as I did.

I love this little film. I was pregnant at the time when I saw it with my husband who is from Ireland. We both enjoyed the film for it's romance, it's humanity, and qualities that were so earthy and yet somehow ethereal. It was both beautiful and moving--one of those rare finds that illuminates, truth, beauty, and the honesty that art can evoke. Art--especially the theater and cinema has the power to inspire and can be so powerful. This film is living proof of that. The film has an integrity and a quality of strength that few films ever capture. It is my dream to both create and perform in little films like this. I want to inspire and create something that makes a spiritual leap--something that lasts and endures for all time because of its quality of a diamond in the rough. If you want to see something a bit unusual, though provoking, emotional, and rare--see this film.

Greetings again from the darkness. I have no idea what has taken so long for this film to be released. Director/Producer/Writer Jim Sheridan ("My Left Foot", "In the Name of the Father" "The Boxer") has always been a tremendous filmmaker and with "In America" he has become a wonderful story teller. This semi-autobiographical picture was co-written by Sheridan and his two daughters and is the story of an Irish family's immigration to New York. I am a fan of Levinson's "Avalon" and Scorsese's "Gangs of New York" and I will rank this with both. It causes what I call "crossover". That is when I no longer feel I am watching a movie, but that I become part of the story. The characters are no longer actors, but real people. The writing, directing and acting are all terrific. Paddy Considine (a Stephen Rea lookalike), Samantha Morton ("Minority Report"), Djimon Hounsou ("Gladiator") are all exceptional in their roles. However, this movie belongs to the real-life Bolger sisters, Sarah and Emma, who play Christy and Ariel. Ariel's innocence and need to believe along with Christy's wisdom-beyond-her-years truly make this film work. Rarely do child actors carry a movie of significance. While these two bring joy, laughter, sadness and tears, they never cross the line of overly cute or overly sympathetic. Another odd twist to this film is the importance that Spielberg's "ET" plays. The dream of home and the presence of aliens (drug dealers, etc) in their tenemant tie in nicely. Their friendship with Mateo (Hounsou) is both bizarre and heartwarming. This is an extremely emotional ride for the audience, but one well worth taking.

Although they tell border control that they are on holiday, Johnny, Sarah and their two daughters have immigrated illegally into the US in the early 1980's. They move to New York into a block full of junkies and down-and-outs. With little money and no friends the family face all manner of stresses and strains in their present and from their past – stresses that threaten the family unit and their future together.

The names in this project attracted me to it and I did have high hopes for it. The film itself though is a strange, rather frustratingly mixed affair that is really good in some regards but annoyingly soapy in others. The plot is not really a plot in the traditional sense but more the recollections of moving into the new world told from the perspective of elder daughter Christy. I was fine with this approach and hoped that it would be convincing, engaging, moving and so on. Although you can see everyone working against it, the film cannot avoid the spirit of sentimentality and soapy-drama seeping into the majority of the scenes. This takes away from the grit and reality of the drama and does make it harder to get into because it doesn't engage in the way that the same events may have if they had been delivered with more grit and less of the soapy-inspirational quality.

It is a shame that the film cannot shake this off but it is not the fault of the cast who are roundly really good. Considine yet again gives me good reason to respect him as an actor, likewise Morton who works well with him as well as individually. They are really well supported by two very natural and engaging performances from the Bolger sisters; they are "cute kids" but not in a way that is cloying or annoying. Hounsou has a strong presence in the film and to his credit he delivers this despite the material handed him – not because of it. The cast doesn't really have a weakness and one can only imagine what this film would have been if Sheridan had been given people capable of a lot less.

Overall then this is a mixed affair. The performances and direction makes it better than it could otherwise have been, but these cannot shake off the sentimentality and soapy feel that much of it has. The end result is a film that has great moments and a story that I really wanted to lose myself in but ultimately was just too melodramatic at its core for all the strengths to totally overcome.