SummaryEilis Lacey (Saoirse Ronan) is a young Irish immigrant navigating her way through 1950s Brooklyn. Lured by the promise of America, Eilis departs Ireland and the comfort of her mother’s home for the shores of New York City. The initial shackles of homesickness quickly diminish as a fresh romance sweeps Eilis into the intoxicating charm of...
SummaryEilis Lacey (Saoirse Ronan) is a young Irish immigrant navigating her way through 1950s Brooklyn. Lured by the promise of America, Eilis departs Ireland and the comfort of her mother’s home for the shores of New York City. The initial shackles of homesickness quickly diminish as a fresh romance sweeps Eilis into the intoxicating charm of...
With compassion, a touch of melancholy and a sense of wonder, Brooklyn reveals the profound truths in a simple, familiar story, ending on a note that’s achingly bittersweet, no matter where you’re from.
People have spoken about how understated and old-fashioned Brooklyn is, to the extent that it might come across as a pleasant innocuous entertainment. Don’t be fooled. Brooklyn is not toothless. But it is big-hearted, romantic and beautiful.
The first time I watched this film, I felt almost nothing. Rewatching it two years later with more life experiences, I understand it much better. This is a simple adult drama; it is a story about love, homesickness, and maturing. Saorise Ronan gives a magnificent performance that grounds the film, and makes it feel almost real.
Brooklyn was a tear jerker. It is such a well written film and the characters are very relatable. Thats what makes this film so strong. It focuses on its characters and their relationships, making you believe in their world as if it was your own. You truly feel happy and sad when they do. I definitely recommend this movie to people of all ages.
It’s not easy to make a movie as beautiful as Brooklyn, where the stakes are low but the outcome really matters. This is an old-fashioned entertainment, but one so masterfully crafted and heartfelt that it’s hard not to love.
All involved bring a warm eccentricity that lifts what in lesser hands could be a collection of cliches about the contrasts between the Old World and the New.
Without Ronan’s performance, Brooklyn might have left a sugary taste. But she is the ingredient that brings everything together: her calm poise anchors almost every scene and every shot.
The simplifications and sanitizations of Brooklyn would be only dreary if they merely served the purpose of a streamlined and simplified story-telling mechanism. What renders them odious is the ethos that they embody, the worldview that they package.
I love any movie about New York, and I just loved this story. It's a testament to their incredible acting that such a gentle, sweet and unpretentious story could have easily won an Oscar. Emory Cohen was outstanding and just nearly stole the movie. I couldn't wait for him to appear on every scene. Just breathtaking! I hope there's a sequel to this gorgeous story.
I had mixed feelings about how the story in the final acts focus only in the romantic aspect of Saiorse's caracther. But overall it's an enjoyable period piece with beautiful setting and great cast.
I just have to say I have no respect for people that are not up front and don't tell the truth. This was a sad and disturbing tale of someone without the courage or perhaps lack of commitment to tell the truth. Not telling the truth straight away caused a lot of pain and suffering for those affected when the truth finally came out, by force. Please speak your truth, speak your heart in your relationships, as it is of the most kindness and benefit to all in the long run. Not to do so is only selfish and fickle. End rant.
Lovely to look at, and Saoirse Ronan is radiant. However, this movie has in my view been really overrated. Its very generic, by-the-numbers story relies completely on coincidence to drive events, rather than any stirrings or initiative on the part of the heroine, creating an artificial set of ironies and dilemmas and a weirdly lifeless, schematic, almost embalmed feeling. All of the characters and settings are utterly one-dimensional. Eilis's beloved mother hardly talks, her sister is a tragic saint, her best friend cute and sweet, the woman she works for is an evil witch. Eilis herself for that matter seems like a complete cipher--a person that things simply happen to. In America, her new boyfriend Tony is pure-hearted and noble--period. The streets of Brooklyn are nearly empty and completely devoid of danger or even texture. Even the Italian family dinner that Tony takes Eilis to is weirdly subdued--out of six people, including three young adult brothers, who in any real family would be talking over each other and teasing each other, the only person who says anything--literally, anything--is their precocious, wise-ass 8-year-old kid brother. Screenwriter Nick Hornsby is a clever writer, but I think he probably could do just so much with this story (I tried reading the novel and gave up--it came off like a young-adult novel and was just not an interesting read.). There are a couple of good moments where a moment of spontaneous life fizzes into being despite the labored artificiality, but these are extremely few and far between. Worth seeing for the nice photography and Ronan's lovely open face and expressive ice-blue eyes--as long as you keep your expectations low for much more than that.
This movie was a waste of time. I expected more depth but instead it was a silly improbable romance. Our very pretty heroine manages to quickly meet a wonderful guy who is not Irish but Italian. They fall in love. Yawn. But oh no! She must go back to Ireland. And doesn't she meet another handsome wonderful (rich) guy who falls in love with her too! Amazing. But! Beware of the wicked witch of the town who knows her secret! Gasp. Oh and not only that shes also really really smart. Aces the bookkeeping class. Wow. And she's the only girl in the class too! And then she fills in for her sisters old job and is so good at it that they offer her a permanent position. Wow again. Every female character was so very well dressed and coiffed. Really stretching credulity. Particularly the rather sophisticated bombshell on the ship.
Oh and by the way, Irish and Italian families did not endear themselves to one another quite so prettily. Plus, I doubt if there were any black people on the same beaches as white people. This was closer to a Hallmark or Oprah offering.
Production Company
Wildgaze Films,
BBC Film,
Parallel Film Productions,
BAI,
BFI Film Fund,
Bord Scannán na hÉireann / The Irish Film Board,
Broadcasting Authority of Ireland,
Bun and Ham Productions,
Crédit d'Impôt Cinéma et Télévision,
Finola Dwyer Productions,
HanWay Films,
Ingenious Productions,
Item 7,
Quebec Film and Television Tax Credit,
Raidió Teilifís Éireann (RTÉ),
Société de Développement des Entreprises Culturelles (SODEC),
The Government of Ireland,
Téléfilm Canada