Brooklyn

Often movies have a magical quality as you're viewing them. Some will demand your undivided attention, others will hypnotize your senses, leaving them to simply wash over you with their exuberance and classic filmmaking procedures. In the case of John Crowley's "Brooklyn," the latter is certainly the case. There comes a moment in the film when you are taken in by the film's classic style filmmaking, and tenderly thought-provoking performances from its cast. Director Crowley, in partnership with Oscar-nominated scribe Nick Hornby, create a beautiful and sensitive love story that is everything a Nicholas Sparks film adaptation wishes it could be. With a vibrant turn from Academy Award nominee Saoirse Ronan at the helm, "Brooklyn" utilizes all of its tools in its arsenal to convey a potent message of love and family.

"Brooklyn" tells the story of Ellis Lacey (Ronan), who in 1950s Ireland and New York, has to choose between two men and two countries. One is the charismatic Italian plumber Tony (Emory Cohen) while the other is the reserved yet sensitive Jim Farrell (Domhnall Gleeson). Both are making a case for Ellis' love.

The film is helmed with a strong and undeniable confidence from Saoirse Ronan. Feeling the internal battle just pouring out of her in nearly every sense and every scene, Ronan finds Ellis' struggle and wears it on her sleeve. She doesn't just have fear of choice, she goes through a barrage of emotions, and we actively see the character progress in each milestone that she hits throughout. It begins with the yearning and devastating separation from her family in Ireland, before gradually being brought to a yearn for acceptance in a new city. Her mild but rewarding progression into comfort and confidence is shown before being abruptly ripped away when tragedy strikes. Every instance is felt in Ronan's work, all of which is authentically true and vivaciously real. It's one of her best turns, and further proof that her name will be on our lips for quite some years.

After breaking out with a scene-stealing turn in Derek Cianfrance's "The Place Beyond the Pines," Emory Cohen shows his sensitive and charming side of his range, resulting in an equally measured and tantalizing performance to his co-star. Don't sleep on this kid. Domhnall Gleeson's reservations to Jim Farrell is haunting in a role that doesn't call for many words or emotions. You can see the ache and pain in his movements, desperate for love and an overwhelming feeling of being lost. In a few scenes, Julie Walters as Mrs. Kehoe sustains as a surprisingly comic relief in a very serious drama. Her stoic, passive demeanor is such a treat to watch in her scenes of interaction with the girls of the boarding house in which Ellis is staying.

Screenwriter Nick Hornby constructs the story with real life emotion, taking very few short cuts for its characters. He allows Ellis' feelings to make the journey in each instance in which she faces them. The foundation of Tony and Ellis is honest, and rings true as something we'd see in any instance within our own lives. Where he really shines in the connection between Ellis and her family. Thousands of miles away, and with little interaction on screen, you are heartbroken and pulled through the ringer as Ronan exemplifies the loss of her family and determination to see them once again. If there is a chink in Hornby's armor, it's the case he creates for the audience for Ellis to stay in Ireland. Up until the second half of the film, Hornby makes his case for New York, I'd only wish he made a more compelling case for Ireland, giving the audience a more fruitful and difficult dilemma in making their own decision about where Ellis should be.

One must acknowledge how impeccably constructed the film is from head to toe. Crowley assembles a dynamite team behind the camera, who all standout in their own right. Cinematographer Yves Bélanger, with a yellow hue and soft palate, capture the country and the city to stunning results. He frames each scene intimately, capturing the heart and emotion of every word spoken. Production Designer François Séguin and Set Decorator Suzanne Cloutier capture the 50's homes as if plucked from the time period themselves, along with transporting us to a foreign land we can only dream to visit. Odile Dicks- Mireaux's magnetic costume work elevates each performance, allowing the actors to fully engage with their characters and the time. And finally, the music of Michael Brook is a breathtaking swell of emotion, creating moments that will surely bring you to tears.

"Brooklyn" is a damn fine movie, following all the classic beats that we've grown to love about the most timeless love stories. "Brooklyn" will join the ranks of those timeless stories in the coming years. It's a joyful and heart aching film that stands as one of the year's best, and a sure-fire contender for several Academy Awards.

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Brian Friel's "Philadelphia, Here I Come" is still the great fictional work of the last 50 years or so to deal with the Irish Diaspora but Colm Toibin's "Brooklyn" runs it a close second. Sadly, the only film version of Friel's play was a somewhat dull affair, part of the American Film Theatre series. It preserved a great play but it wasn't much of a film, whereas John Crowley's screen version of Toibin's novel is as close to perfect as we are likely to get. It preserves the feel of the book, (thanks to a flawless adaptation by Nick Hornby), but this is also a real film; large, expansive, magical and one of the best films you are likely to see this year.

It's the story of one young girl's awakening, to the world and to herself. She's Eilis and at the start of the film she is moving from her home town of Enniscorthy in Ireland's County Wexford to Brooklyn, a world away on the other side of the Atlantic. She goes at the behest of her sister, Rose so she might have a life that might otherwise be denied her back in Ireland. Homesick at first, she finally finds happiness with a hugely likable and very handsome Italian boy until a family tragedy forces her to return to Ireland.

It's a simple tale, made complex by conflicting emotions and a welter of detail. It's funny and sad and bursting with life. Brooklyn is a place of happiness and giving; Enniscorthy a place of sadness and resentment, though on Eilis' return, a fuller and more confident woman, it too offers the potential for happiness in the form of a new job and, more crucially, a new boyfriend. This return also offers a quandary; should she stay or return to Brooklyn, as well as an ending more tinged with sadness than might appear on the surface.

Nothing about this wonderful film can be faulted, (except perhaps the appalling trailer that's doing the rounds). The period detail is superb, beautifully captured in Yves Belanger's gorgeous cinematography, (the costumes are crucial and they are perfect). Here is a period piece, (it's set in 1952), that could have been made in the year in which it's set and the director, John Crowley, imbues it with great feeling.

Best of all, it's superlatively acted down to the smallest part. Roles that are basically clichés, (the kindly landlady in the US, the parish priest, the bitchy shopkeeper back in Ireland), are beautifully fleshed out by Julie Walters, Jim Broadbent and Brid Brennan. Still smaller parts, (the girls Eilis encounters on her journey, the Italian boy's family, her mother and sister), are all fully developed by a brilliant cast but it's the three central performances that are truly great and award-worthy.

As the boys who basically change Eilis' life, in one way or another, Emory Cohen in America and Domhnall Gleeson in Ireland, are terrific. Cohen, (a much more handsome, young Rod Steiger), has a real future ahead of him while Gleeson is fast overtaking his father as Ireland's finest actor. And then there is Saoirse Ronan as Eilis; the greatness of her performance lies in as much in what she's not doing or saying as in what she does. She has one of the most expressive faces in the movies and it's in the moments of silence that she really comes into her own and it's one of the great pleasures of recent cinema watching her character develop. Surely she must be a front-runner at this year's Oscars. This is a film both for now and for posterity. See it at all costs.

I was lucky enough to get tickets to a preview of Brooklyn last week, and in a rare change from the normal routine, I went into a film knowing absolutely nothing about it.

It was such a full house, that I ended up staring up at the screen from well outside my usual comfort zone at an awkward angle, too close to the screen, and away from my girlfriend which wasn't a great start, but once the film started I was quickly caught up in the magnificence of Saoirse Ronan's performance and forgot about any of those minor gripes.

Ronan owned this film, from first to last. The storyline itself is a somewhat thin and a follows a well-trodden path but Ronan gives it such heft, and brings the intensity of her character's experience and development full force such that any deficiencies of the story seem inconsequential. It was only after leaving the screening that I really looked back at some of the plot points and realised how contrived it had been in places, but for the time I was watching it, I was simply living it through the potency of the acting. Ronan was brilliant in this, and I struggle to think of any recent performances that can match this for the confidence and sure-footedness that she showed. I think she's in with a good shout for an award or two for this role.

It's worth mentioning Julie Waters as well, who reliably entertains and impresses in all she does. Between her and Saoirse Ronan, they made sure that Brooklyn passed the 6 laugh test – and also the 6 cry test. I laughed, and cried, and laughed as I was crying, and cried as I was laughing pretty much throughout the whole film. A thoroughly enjoyable film, where the central performance takes the audience on an engrossing and emotional trip through an otherwise somewhat slight storyline.

Looming skyscrapers in a distant land, the kindness of strangers, love and hope for a better life; such things open the eyes of Eilis, a smart and insular immigrant to 1950s Brooklyn, to opportunities she did not have in the Irish countryside. While at first lonely and homesick in this new cityscape, Eilis is soon enthralled with the bright possibilities, encouraged by all she is learning and charmed by the people she meets. She breaks free from her shell and shines in this radiant, unfamiliar realm. Returning to Ireland for what she hopes is a brief stay, Eilis both sees through and is seen in a luminous and different light. Both worlds, New York and her Irish home, now pull the new and improved Eilis in different directions.

Saoirse Ronan is spectacular in her performance as Eilis. She really makes this Sundance hit come alive. It is comforting, as always, to see a film that does not depend on explosions, computer graphics and alien contagions to entertain. There is a deeper pleasure here, one that pulls at mind, spirit, body and heart together. Visuals, story, organization, acting, intriguing characters and more, all come together well.

Crafted with care, told with elegance & resonating a deep sense of warmth throughout its runtime, Brooklyn is the story of an immigrant that beautifully illustrates the struggles faced when trying to adjust in a new environment with people you don't know & places you aren't familiar with, and not only does it work as a wonderful coming-of-age drama but also succeeds as a pleasant love story.

Based on the novel of the same name, the story of Brooklyn takes place during the early 1950s and follows a young Irish immigrant who leaves her hometown to seek a better future in the titular town of New York where, after struggling for a while, she manages to bring some stability in her life. But when an unexpected tragedy strikes back home, she's forced to confront her past and make a hard choice.

Directed by John Crowley, the plot is divided into three segments with the first one focusing on her inexperience & the difficult time she endures during her initial days in the new country. The second segment covers her life in Brooklyn and the different things she experiences there while the last one brings her back to the place she went away from where circumstances compel her to make a decision that will alter her life.

Written by Nick Hornby, the movie tackles the issues faced by immigrants in a lightweight manner plus the characters are quite compelling. The set pieces are reminiscent of the timeline it tries to depict, Cinematography uses different colour tones for each segment and its bright lighting keeps the ambiance more inviting. Editing unravels the plot in a controlled way and pace is never hurried. Plus, all the period drama elements are nicely handled.

Coming to the performances, Brooklyn packs a fine cast in Saoirse Ronan, Emory Cohen, Domhnall Gleeson, Jim Broadbent, Julie Walters & others, and all of them are convincing in their given roles. Effortlessly stealing the show is Ronan who carries the whole film all by herself plus her excellent performance is this flick's real highlight. Cohen & Gleeson chip in with fine supporting work while Walters is a treat to watch even if her appearance is quite brief.

On an overall scale, Brooklyn is a heartwarming, captivating & fulfilling movie that's as much about growing up & finding your identity in life as it is about love & relationships, is powered by a strong lead performance from Saoirse Ronan, and addresses its universal themes in a sensible manner. Expertly directed, deftly written, exquisitely photographed, patiently edited, consistently paced & aptly scored, Brooklyn is one of the better films of 2015 and is definitely worth a shot.