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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"Brooklyn" is a gentle mist of a movie, and it's one of the most romantic I've seen in a long time.

Saoirse Ronan, in a luminous performance that gets better and better the more times you see it and the longer you think about it, plays Ellis, a young Irish woman who comes to New York in the early 1950s for the opportunities to live an independent life that her small-town Irish village won't give her. She has to deal with homesickness and the guilt of leaving behind an older sister who will have to single-handedly carry the burden of caring for their mother. The movie is about the conflict between a safe, comfortable life where everything may be dull but at least familiar; and a new one that may be a little scary but has the excitement of being of one's own choosing. The film is like life, and this conflict plays out as such things do in reality, quietly and internally. This isn't a movie of big dramatic moments, because life isn't a movie. Both of Ellis's options would give her at least a decent, comfortable life. But only one will allow her to feel that she's living her own life rather than one being lived for her by others.

The movie has an old Hollywood quality to it, and it's deeply romantic. It plays like a fairy tale if you took out everything magical but left the tone and sentiment. It's a really wonderful movie.

Grade: A

When the older generation talk about them "not making films like that anymore", this should be the film they go and see. This is a film that will appeal greatly to the "Marigold Hotel" set, and from the audience mix in the well-attended Tuesday night screening I attended, that message is getting out there.

Saoirse Ronan plays Eilis, a teenage girl growing up in Ireland's County Wexford with her older sister and widowed mother in the early 1950's. Short on opportunities for a decent life, she is sponsored into a new city and a new job by Father Flood (Jim Broadbent), a friend in the New York clergy. Desperately homesick, we follow her trials and tribulations as she eventually settles into her new life through the love of a good (albeit sometimes un-favourably smelling) young man (an impressive Emory Cohen). Torn between her family duty at home in Ireland, where lurks another beau in the form of Domhnall Gleeson ("Ex Machina", "About Time"), Eilis is caught in a love triangle with a 5,000 km hypotenuse.

Ronan is mesmeric in the role of Eilis. Most famous for her dramatic role in the much-underrated adventure film "Hanna", and more recently in last year's superb "Grand Budapest Hotel", here she has to carry a demanding starring role and she does so with great skill.

The supporting cast are also excellent, with Jane Brennan in particular turning in a heartbreaking performance as Eilis's mother (albeit, I felt, in one of the more two-dimensionally scripted roles in the film). Also of particular note is national treasure Julie Walters, hilarious as the landlady Mrs Kehoe coming out with some cracking dialogue, and Jenn Murray (set to appear in Potter spin-off "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them") as the kookie and man-hungry new guest-house arrival who is a sheer comic delight to watch.

The script is by Nick Hornby ("About a Boy"), based on the novel by Colm Tóibín, and zips along pleasantly with only the occasional missed step (there was one line in particular that reeked of cheese).

The director is John Crowley, but credit should also go to the technical team that makes the US scenes just glow with nostalgia. The cinematography of Yves Bélanger ("Wild", "Dallas Buyers Club") is exquisite, especially in the more romantic scenes with Ronan wearing rich red costumes (by Odile Dicks-Mireaux). And the set decoration and special effects make scenes such as the ones at Coney Island very effective without having to break a (presumably) limited budget. All in all, this is a film that, if there is any justice in the world, I would love to see feature prominently in the Oscar art categories.

With some bittersweet twists and beautifully shot, this is a fill-em (to use the Irish vernacular) that should appeal to a broad audience looking for a romantic story well told on the big screen. By the way, imho the trailer gives too much of the plot away so I would recommend avoiding.

(A graphical version of this review is available at bob-the-movie- man.com).

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.