Brooklyn is a stunning portrait of love and loss.Brooklyn movie cast: Saoirse Ronan, Emory Cohen, Domhnall Gleeson, Julie Walters
Brooklyn movie director: John Crowley
Brooklyn movie rating: 4.5 stars
Home is home. There is no place like home, it’s quietly welcoming and warm in its own special way. And while there have been movies on displacement, partition and finding a new place in the midst of a personal or larger struggle, there are only a handful of films that have successfully been able to convey what it is like to discover a new place. John Crowley directorial Brooklyn (2015) does exactly that and oh so beautifully.
Saoirse Ronan stars as Eilis Lacey, a young Irish immigrant. The scene changes from Brooklyn to Ireland’s County Wexford multiple times in the movie. It is the 1950s and Eilis makes her way to America to find a footing for herself in the big, bad world. Whether she succeeds or not is of course a part of the story, but in the larger scheme of things, it is but a silly question.
What matters more to screenplay writer Nick Hornby — who has adpated Colm Tóibín’s book of the same name with such finesse — is that the audience accompanies the creator and his characters in this uncertain yet hopeful journey. And I am happy to report that throughout the entire run of the film, I was moved — both to laughter and tears, quite a few times.
Hollywood Rewind: Drive | Chocolat | Batman Begins | 10 Things I Hate About You | The Departed | Freedom Writers | Pretty Woman | Dan in Real Life | Jurassic Park | Tangled | Meet Joe Black | Monster’s Ball | Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind | You’ve Got Mail | Half Nelson | Fight Club | Doubt | American Psycho | Julie and Julia | Forrest Gump | The Silence of the Lambs | Finding Neverland | Roman Holiday| American History X | Tropic Thunder | Before Sunrise | Scent of a Woman | Finding Forrester | Sixteen Candles
The cinematography captures the sparse and empty green spaces of Ireland as well as the hustle and bustle of the overcrowded but joyous Brooklyn well. As far as the performances are concerned, the main cast were top notch. Saoirse Ronan took my breath away with her ‘less is more’ approach to the craft. Her wide eyes and the subtle but powerful transition that her character undergoes as the film progresses was overwhelming, and I mean that in the best possible way.
What is particularly captivating about the film is that it takes the idea of finding oneself in a new place away from home and that somehow metamorphoses wonderfully into a love triangle.
Brooklyn is available for streaming on YouTube.
