Brooklyn: Searching for Home

Every year, there are a handful of movies I watch solely because of awards buzz; and then I fall in love with them. Without a doubt, Brooklyn is one of those movies. Featuring a miraculous performance by Saoirse Ronan, this film will break your heart several times in two hours and leave you with a smile.

With a screenplay deftly adapted by Nick Hornby from Colm Toibin's novel of the same name, Brooklyn is set in 1952 and tells the story of Eilis Lacey (Ronan), a girl who grew up in the small town of Enniscorthy, Ireland, but sets off to America to seek a better life. Her sister arranges the journey through the help of the local parish, and when Eilis arrives in Brooklyn, she has a place to stay, a job in a department store, and a chance to make something of her life. She finds love with Tony Fiorello (Emory Cohen), a sweet young Italian man, but when she has to return to Ireland for a family crisis, she finds herself torn between her old life in Enniscorthy and the new life she had made for herself in Brooklyn. 

It's a simple story, and there is nothing melodramatic or grand about any of the life events that transpire, but that is precisely why it wrings your heart. Saoirse Ronan's face is luminous and even when she isn't bewitching you with her lilting Irish brogue, her wide-open eyes express a thousand emotions. Her homesickness when she first receives a letter from her sister is devastating. Her smile when she finally begins to feel at home is uplifting. As brilliant an actress as she is (and she fully deserves multiple award nominations and wins), I would be remiss to not point out cinematographer Yves Belanger, who went to great lengths to specifically light Ronan's eyes so they can speak volumes in every close-up. The score by Michael Brook is particularly heartwrenching and will leave you wrecked and glad. And the 1950's production design by Francois Seguin is perfect. There is nothing calculated to bring a lump to your throat as effectively as watching a girl board a ship to America with nothing but a small suitcase that contains all her worldly possessions. 

Every performance in this movie is a little marvel. Julie Walters provides much-needed comic relief as the kind but volubly opinionated Mrs. Kehoe, who runs the boarding house Eilis lives in. Jim Broadbent is kind and compassionate as Father Flood, the priest who gives Eilis every opportunity and is determined to see her succeed in her new life. Emory Cohen is kind, charming, and romantic as Tony, the Italian plumber with a thing for Irish girls, who wears his heart on his sleeve throughout the entire movie. And then there's Domhnall Gleeson, playing the equally kind and charming Jim Farrell who harbors his own romantic intentions when Eilis returns to Ireland. It is not a mistake that I have described each of these characters as kind. Apart from one character, everyone that Eilis meets has a good heart and no matter how prickly they seem at first, she learns to value their help and generosity. More importantly, they teach her to value herself, and it is remarkable to see how the reserved, naive girl from the beginning of the movie grows into a confident, independent woman by the end.

Director John Crowley has made a beautiful, moving film that will stand the test of the time. As an immigrant myself, this story articulated the emotions that churned through me every time I moved somewhere new. And if you've never moved at all, you can sympathize with Jim as he declares his dreams of seeing the world and his fear that he will die never having left Ireland. After nervously watching Eilis struggle to make her decision, the final scenes of Brooklyn are inexpressibly comforting. As she realizes where she belongs, you breathe a sigh of relief that our heroine has finally come home.