Review: Brooklyn

Based on Colm Tóibín's 2009 novel about a young Irish immigrant torn between two countries and two loves, Brooklyn is a luminous and bittersweet film whose conflicts may be executed with calm, but whose power is spellbinding.

The captivating Saoirse Ronan stars as Eilis Lacey, who reluctantly bids farewell to her family and friends in Enniscorthy, County Wexford in southeast Ireland. Her older sister Rose (Fiona Glascott) has arranged the passage, a place for her to stay and job in Brooklyn with the help of an emigrated old priest named Father Flood (Jim Broadbent), who also enrolls Eilis in night classes. Rose understands what Eilis has yet to learn: that Enniscorthy may be home but it is a dead end and, whilst the hustle and bustle of Brooklyn may be overwhelming, the new surroundings signal a freedom and easiness that are in stark contrast to the insularity of her hometown.

Life's lessons often take a while to unfold, but learning can be had if one is not blinded with yearning and crushed by loneliness. Initially Eilis is quiet and recessive, listening with politeness to the chatter of the other girls who populate the boardinghouse run by the sharp-tongued Mrs. Kehoe (Julie Walters, clearly having a hoot and a half). She has awkward interactions with the customers at the Brooklyn department store where she is employed; her floor manager Miss Fortini (Jessica Paré), though sympathetic to her situation, sternly advises her to be better at her job. Letters from home can't come soon enough, but they're cold comfort to Eilis, who tearfully tells Father Flood, "I wish I could stop feeling that I want to be an Irish girl in Ireland."

Things begin to turn around once she meets working-class Italian, Tony (Emory Cohen), at a church dance. Their courtship is sweet and never saccharine, and one delights in Eilis' blossoming. An unexpected occurrence sends her back to Enniscorthy, where her newfound sophistication affords her the very opportunities that were lacking before she left. She wishes it had been like this, she confesses to Jim (Domhnall Gleeson), the gentle and privileged charmer who begins to court her. One of the many charms of Brooklyn is its handling of Tony and Jim, who are both presented as worthy of her heart. Eilis could be happy with either of them, so strongly do the actors pledge their characters' cases. Cohen recalls the young Marlon Brando in his Method-like intensity; his scenes with Ronan almost play like the shy and solicitous romance between Brando and Eva Marie Saint in On the Waterfront. Gleeson, meanwhile, conveys a winning mix of insecurity and sincerity that would have made Jimmy Stewart proud.

Brooklyn absorbingly charts the expat experience with its curious mix of inherited nostalgia and newly earned history. Yet more than the theme of assimilation, it speaks to personal transformation and the American way of re-creating one's self. Devoid of the usual crutches of voiceover narration and explanatory scenes, Eilis' metamorphosis rests solely on the shoulders of the immensely talented Ronan, who is truly exceptional. Her delivery of the line "I'd forgotten what this town is like" may be one of the most chilling yet moving moments of self-realisation one is likely to see this year.

Everything works in harmony from Nick Hornby's alternately poignant and humourous screenplay to Michael Brook's plangently melodic score to the subtle shifts in mood caught by cinematographer Yves Bélanger to the vibrant and lovingly detailed costumes and art direction by Odile Dicks-Mireaux and François Séguin, respectively. Classically crafted by director John Crowley, Brooklyn is the sort of wholesome, deeply felt escapism that has been sorely missing from the cinema screens for quite some time.

Brooklyn

Directed by: John Crowley

Written by: Nick Hornby; adapted from the novel by Colm Tóibín

Starring: Saoirse Ronan, Domhnall Gleeson, Emory Cohen, Jim Broadbent, Julie Walters, Jessica Paré, Fiona Glascott, Bríd Brennan, Jane Brennan, Eileen Higgins, Emily Bett Rickards, Eva Birthistle