Aubrey MaloneBrooklyn (15A)
Saoirse Ronan’s eyes have been the most exciting things in Irish cinema for many years now. They can convey the most nuanced emotions so delicately they remind you of the sea. In this beautiful adaptation of Colm Tóibín’s acclaimed novel of the same name, they’re called on to conjure up everything from joy to sorrow to homesickness – and more.
It’s a story of 1950s diaspora that sees the diffident Eilis (Ronan), leave her humdrum existence in Enniscorthy to seek out a new life for herself in New York. It breaks her heart to leave her mother and sister. She installs herself in a boarding house and gets a job in a big department store, studying book-keeping at night.
After a time she finds love with a romantic young Italian plumber, Tony (Emory Cohen). But a family tragedy means a painful return home. After she gets there she meets Jim (Domhnall Gleeson). He also expresses a romantic interest in her. Will she go back to Tony or stay with Jim?
The production values are exemplary. No expense has been spared to recreate the past. Every face, every fashion, is blindingly real. John Crowley, the film’s director, captures both the warmth and xenophobia of the Ireland of yesteryear with utter conviction. His characterisations ooze authenticity: Ronan’s mother, her sister, the Enniscorthy locals, the girls in the boarding house, even the amusing landlady (Julie Walters).
Gleeson comes into the film very late but still gets second billing. This is unfair. Brooklyn is being sold on the Ronan/Gleeson pairing but the guts of the film belongs more to the Ronan/Cohen one. (Having said that, Cohen’s character seems over-idealised.)
I thought Toibin’s novel was excessively praised – much of it read like the poor man’s McGahern with its faux-formal dialect – but the film is near-perfect. This is mainly down to Ronan. She manages to under-act powerfully. And to look different in almost every scene. (The only fault I found with her was a Dublin inflection in her accent.)
Prize for the weirdest accent in the film must go to Jim Broadbent as the priest. I couldn’t make out if he was meant to be from Ireland, England or America. Sometimes the three countries seemed to be present in the same utterance – an achievement by anyone’s standards.
Don’t miss Brooklyn on any account. It’s the film everyone is talking about, the one that should finally put Ms Ronan on the international map for keeps. Crowley must also take a large bow for his captivating set-pieces.
And the last scene is truly cathartic.
Unmissable *****