Brooklyn

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.

"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

Based on Colm Tóibín's novel of the same name, 'Brooklyn' is A Beautiful, Beautiful Film! A heartwarming tale about Love, Loss & Relationships. And a Knock-Out Performance by Saoirse Ronan is always welcome.

'Brooklyn' Synopsis: An Irish immigrant lands in 1950s Brooklyn, where she quickly falls into a new romance. When her past catches up with her, however, she must choose between two countries and the lives that exist within.

'Brooklyn' is a simple film, told magnificently. Its superior film in all respects. Nick Hornby's Adapted Screenplay captures the Protagonist's coming-of-age tale, with dignity & pathos. I was arrested by the flow of the narrative. John Crowley's Direction is excellent. Cinematography & Editing are sharp, while the Art & Costume Design are fabulous. Michael Brook's Score works.

Performance-Wise: Saoirse Ronan is in great form. The talented actress delivers a Knock-Out Performance as the naive & lovable protagonist. This is the kind of performance awards were invented for. Giving her terrific support are Emory Cohen & Domhnall Gleeson, who enact the men in her lives, proficiently. The Ever-Compelling Jim Broadbent shines in a brief role.

On the whole, 'Brooklyn' is a true winner. Don't miss it!

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.

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).