Brooklyn

An Irish movie about Irish immigrants in the middle of Brooklyn. So obviously, a movie that a lot of families could relate to. Personally, I liked Saoirse Ronan the best and I must say that the young Italian was right; Irish girls are prettier than the Italian ones. Even those in this movie have something about them and Saoirse is outright radiating beauty. The story isn’t anything extraordinary. You can pretty much guess it based on the premise. It’s not an innovative drama, but on the other hand, it’s proper filmmaking. And that’s definitely worth something. (29/02/2016)

A film just like its main protagonist: a gray mouse carving a path between more attractive and prominent ones. And thanks to the fact that the role of Eilis is custom tailored for Saoirse Ronan, I feel her desire to make her own decisions at life's crossroads very closely. However, if the last act had taken a slightly more mature direction, I would have believed all of Brooklyn. The questions around relationships and bridges that can't be burned, either towards each other or away from each other, were painful for all of us. To wrap them up with a rich harlequin romance was, therefore, a cheap shot. (31/01/2016)

Brooklyn is a nicely filmed, delicate Harlequin romance with thin content, or rather with content that is perceived and resolves life events in a stereotypical feminine way – simplistically and through tears. Nevertheless, the Oscar nomination for Best Picture is understandable, as the movie does its best to suck up to Hollywood and its standards. (28/02/2016)

I can't help it, but this movie just couldn't fully captivate me. The story didn't entertain me, even though I see a certain depth in it that comes with its point. As a romance, it's pleasantly calm; there are no intense scenes, which I like. It's well made in how the world tries to influence one life. And he won't let it happen. But I'm not thrilled with the film. (24/01/2016)

Brooklyn is a story from the time when at least the United States welcomed economic migrants almost with open arms and all one had to do to pass through immigration control was to put on decent make-up and smile sweetly. But the film is a return to a bygone era, not only in its realities but also in its straightforward narrative. Compared to the book, it is more sentimental, more literal and less thematically expansive (it leaves out the manipulation of African-Americans and the hint of lesbian love). At the same time, however, it mostly retains the likably unforced development of events and more thoroughly develops the motif of two homes through its narrative structure. In the second half of the film, Eilis experiences similar situations as in the first half, except she is now much more experienced, having risen from pupil to teacher (the transformation culminates in the second scene on the boat, when she advises an inexperienced girl). Green is a constant reminder of home, to which other colours are gradually added, just as other emotions are added to the sadness in the protagonist’s face (instead of one emotion being completely replaced by another). The inability to cut ties to her homeland adds ambivalence to the protagonist’s journey toward fulfilling her dream – during the first hour, she suppresses her sadness, first through concentrated work, then by building a new home, only to be painfully reminded that her real and only home is in Ireland. Thus, unlike other immigration stories, the move to the US is not the end but the beginning of suffering. The boldest departure from the source material is the significant abridgment of the introductory part of the story. In the book, we get to know the environment and the people Eilis will have to leave behind over the course of several dozen pages. In the film, the girl announces shortly after the beginning that she is leaving for America, which she promptly does. Therefore, we don’t have the possibility to better get to know her older and more experienced sister Rose, whose legacy Eilis develops, and thus no tension arises with respect to which of the sisters deserves success and which will ultimately achieve it. Eilis can easily be accepted as a traditional romantic heroine. The film is thus less subversive than the book in relation to the conventions of idealistic narratives about the fulfilment of the American dream. However, it preserves the book’s narrative straightforwardness and its matter-of-fact, unsentimental tone, as it does not simply communicate to us in words and music what the protagonists is going through, but lets us experience it with her. 80% (27/02/2016)