Brooklyn a magnetic everyday story?

On first impression the film of the novel by Colm Toibin of a “simple” Irish girl’s experience in New York and her trip there by liner, having left a loving sister and mother behind in Wexford where work was thin on the ground, seems just a trifle too lightweight to grab an audience’s attention. However the casting, acting and props, costumes and locations are highly effective, though still there is a nagging feeling that girls like the character played by Saoirse Ronan an Irish American Actress who has superbly grasped the character of Eillis Lacey are almost but not quite an embarrassment to us all. Innocent in virtually all matters of life in a big city, and with no experience with men,  she is set off well by the other lodgers in her block – all female, with Julie Walters playing the eccentric but caring landlady who keeps an eye on them all.  Once she acquires a boyfriend, enchantingly played by Emory Cohen, with the help of the other lodgers in the house who love making and dressing up and flirting,  Emory’s role  soon invites her to dine with his Italian family and later tells her he loves her.  All well and good, so our star soon agrees to marry when she is called home to Ireland on the unexpected death of Rose, her sister.  The little town she returns to poses all manner of problems for her, though she graces it with her new found fashion sense and increased good looks. A tug of love ensues and Eillis finally realises the pettiness and spitefulness of nosy neighbours who hasten her decision to return to New York and her husband.  There are unanswered questions – like what will happen to her mother, and one or two other ties which she has made, but I can’t give the plot away – you will have to see for yourself. However those questions are not resolved in the story but we do see our resplendent star making the crossing back to New York and meet up with her husband who has been missing her.  There is bitchiness about the Italians not liking the Irish and other aspects of the story which make us feel that ultimately people can be spiteful and sectarian.  I think a few words at the end of the film about how Eillis and her husband’s life progressed as a postscript would have been welcome. When Eillis first told the girls in her apartment about her boyfriend, I was expecting one of them to steal him off her, the fact that they didn’t was a relief.

There are light moments of pure fun – including bathing scenes and at the dance meetings where romance so often gets kindled. Other stars include Julie Walters and Domhnall Gleeson. The acting by all the cast is exemplary including the Irish accents though an Irish viewer may say differently. “Brooklyn” is directed by John Cowley, and a sense of fun tinged with innocence pervades it.

Enjoy

Penny Nair Price