Numbers obtained from IMDb and Rotten Tomatoes on December 10, 2015.
My rating IMDb Rotten Tomatoes
Critics Audience Critics Audience
8/10 87/100 8.1/10 98% 92%
Rarely do I identify myself in situations portrait in movies. My life is not filled with plot-twisting adventures nor with endless dramas. Last week, however, I felt connected with the main character of Brooklyn in a very similar way I saw myself in Pixar’s Inside Out. The details are obviously different, but the movie’s main idea touched me: where is home? Or rather, where do you feel is your true place?
Set in the 1950s, Brooklyn tells the story of Eilis (Saoirse Ronan), an Irish girl who leaves Ireland encouraged by her sister (Fiona Glascott), to pursuit a better life. As she is on the ship to the US, she asks the girl who is sharing the room with her and who already lives in Brooklyn, how long it takes for the letters to arrive from Ireland. The girl replies that it takes long at first, and then no time at all. And that’s the main theme of the movie. We witness Eilis’s adaptation to her new life in the US, with a new job and a new boyfriend. An event makes her travel back to Ireland, and that’s when she starts to really question whether she should go back to the US or not.
It’s one of those movies that are nice to watch with no other intention than to be entertained and to enjoy a sweet story. Saoirse Ronan gives a great performance and her clothes and make up are great. Sometimes her hairstyle makes her look older, though.
As for the story itself, as I said, it really resonates with those who live abroad and visit their home country once in a while. The most astonishing thing is going back to your hometown and realizing that you’ve changed and everybody else kind of stayed the same. And there is, of course, the terrible moment of leaving again…
