America loves a good immigrant’s story, especially if it’s set in the past and stars a plucky protagonist with wide eyes and a strong work ethic. Throw in a love story, particularly one that crosses ethnic lines, and you have the formula for a hit.
Brooklyn, performing well at box offices in limited release, includes all the elements. What brings the formula to life is the cast, led by the Golden Globe-nominated performance of Saoirse Ronan as Eilis, a girl from a sulking Irish town who overcomes timidity and takes a chance in the New World circa 1950. Eilis might never have made the journey if not for the ministrations of her sister Rose (Fiona Glascott), who arranges passage as well as sponsorship from a kindly Irish priest in New York (Jim Broadbent). Her departure is a familiar immigrant scene: The crowd of sad, hopeful faces at the quay as the steamship whistles its melancholy goodbye.
With the face of a Sandro Botticelli angel and a slight air of distraction, Eilis might be easy prey as an innocent abroad, but good fortune follows every step. She is befriended shipboard by a worldly Irish woman and deposited in a Brooklyn boarding house run by a stern but benign matron and populated by gossiping but good-natured girls. She finds work immediately in a top department store where the management mentors her; the priest arranges tuition for night school. And then she gradually falls in love with a sweet Italian boy (Emory Cohen).
Tragedy strikes, but can we doubt that happiness will prevail?
Brooklyn is good for many things, including its recreation of 1950s New York with its contrast of poverty and affluence, the threadbare but earnest romance of parish dances where couples press close as the band plays Irish waltzes, and its understanding of the emotional bonds of family. It mythologizes the immigrant experience, sanding off the hard edges and reducing the obstacles to speed bumps on the way to the American Dream.
Brooklyn
3 stars
Saoirse Ronan
Emory Cohen
Directed by John Crowley
PG-13
