2015 | Dir. John Crowley | 112 Minutes
"Homesickness is like most sicknesses. It will pass."
In the early 1950s, Eilis Lacey leaves her small hometown in Ireland for a new life with more opportunities in America. Though initially homesick, Eilis finds new purpose after receiving high marks in night school bookkeeping classes and love in the form of a charming young Italian plumber named Tony. After a sudden family tragedy, Eilis returns to her hometown to find a potential life and suitor should she choose to stay.
Based on a novel by Irish writer Colm Tóibín, Brooklyn is a well-directed, well-acted drama supported with great production design, but it's ultimately a rather ordinary film. While the beginning of the story does a fine job of establishing Eilis, the limitations of her life in Ireland, the world of 1950s Brooklyn, and the heartwarming relationship between her and Tony, the back half of the film undersells the film's central conflict between Eilis' new life and the temptation to permanently return home. Comparing the amount of screen time afforded to Tony played by Emory Cohen against the amount of time spent with Eilis' potential Irish love interest Jim played by Domhnall Gleeson, to the audience there is no question where Eilis' heart belongs and where she ought to stay.
Saoirse Ronan is lovely as Eilis, her performance carrying the entire film. Emory Cohen is suitably charismatic as Tony, complementing Ronan's vulnerability as Eilis with his. Despite receiving second billing, Domhnall Gleeson doesn't have much screen time or much to do as Jim Farrell except to look handsome and try to convince Eilis to stay in Ireland. Veteran English actors Jim Broadbent and Julie Walters respectively play Father Flood as Madge Kehoe, solid performances as reliable mentors to Eilis in her new life abroad. If there is a villain in this film, it is the exaggerated nasty witch of a grocer Miss Kelly, brought to life by Bríd Brennan, who shares a powerful scene with Ronan towards the end of the film.
Despite an admirable performance from its leading lady, Brooklyn lacks dramatic weight and disappointingly loses momentum right at the thick of the plot. Ronan deserves praise for the talent on display in this film but the film didn't fully develop more explore its central conflict during its closing act.
FRAGMENTS
- Screenwriter Nick Hornby is perhaps best known for writing the novel High Fidelity which was adapting into a critically-acclaimed film in 2000 starring John Cusack
- Jessica Paré, best known as Megan on Mad Men, plays Eilis' stern but sympathetic supervisor at her New York department store job
- Emily Bett Rickards, the tech genius Felicity Smoak on Arrow, has a small part as one of women living with Eilis in Kehoe's boarding house
- Julie Walters, Domhnall Gleeson, and Jim Broadbent are have all appeared in the Harry Potter films
- In 2015, Domhnall Gleeson appeared in numerous critically-acclaimed and financially successful films including this film, Ex Machina, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, and The Revenant
