Reviews & Ratings for
Brooklyn (2015)

Just returned from a friends house after seeing this with my 13 year old sister. We both loved it. This is a beautiful movie that is, in many ways, unlike any other film currently in theaters. Complicated and surprising characters show an Irish immigrant experience in the early 1950s, but because of the tremendously well done relationships and writing, it feels contemporary. Very well acted, directed, and written. Lots for families to talk about all afterwards.
I recommended 11 and up to watch this movie, but not based on the sex scene (not nearly as suggestive as the Viagra commercials on TV) or the depictions of sea sickness or death. It is a beautiful film about family, love, and courage. The question I would ask is whether you think your child will appreciate these themes and the humanity of the characters - or will they be bored because it's not a "kids" movie!

Brooklyn was one of my favorite films of the Sundance film festival. Nick Hornby (About a Boy, An Education) adapted the book for the screen, and I especially loved some very sharply written funny dialogue -- the boarding house dinners were an absolute stitch.

Saorise (which we learned is pronounce Ser-shay) Ronan stars as Elis, a young woman with little prospects in her town in Ireland in 1951. Her older sister has arranged through a priest in Brooklyn for her to immigrate with a job already waiting for her. She has a difficult crossing, and is taken under the wing of her roommate who has just been returning to Ireland for a family visit.

Elis lives in a boarding house with several other girls, but is crushed by loneliness and homesickness. She works as a shop girl in a high end department store. The priest, played by Jim Broadbent, arranges for her to start night school for bookkeeping.

Her life turns around when she meets Tony, a young Italian plumber, at a church dance. Tony is madly in love with her, and is like an incredibly sweet young Marlon Brando.

Tragedy strikes back at home and she has to return to Ireland. Tony is fearful that she will forget him and not return.

His fears are well founded, because both her family and friends do all they can to get her to stay. She meets a young man played beautifully by Domnhaill Gleason, and is truly torn both between the two young men, and her prospective life in both countries.

My husband didn't like the character of Elis when she returned to Ireland, and was angry with her for cheating on Tony. There was an audible gasp in the theater when you see that she has not even opened Tony's letters. A love triangle like this is the kind of story I read often, and I could sympathize with how torn she was between the two alternatives. She makes the right choice, but it is difficult and wrenching to do so.

I cried watching this film, and it affected me the strongest of any film I saw at the fest. I heard lots of sniffles all around me in the theater, too. It sold immediately the next day, and is already being talked about for next year's awards season. The performances are particularly strong, especially Saorise Ronan who can convey her inner turmoil with the slightest of changes of expression. I have never seen Emory Cohen's (Tony) work before, and I will definitely be watching out for him in the future. I was pleased to see Domnhaill Gleason get a more serious, and less silly role than most of the other films I have seen him do. He was great, and a formidable alternative to Tony. Julie Waters was a RIOT as the strict landlady of the girls' boarding house, and gets some of the funniest lines of the script.

Wow, Just wow. What a film. I was most impressed by the performances by all involved especially Saoirse Ronan's who played Eilis. She has been tipped for Oscar 2016. Such powerful performances. Great well done. My number one pet peeve other than Music, which am delighted was wonderful and fantastic, BUT the plot, which I will outline in a mo. I was most impressed with the way they portrayed the 1950s. Highly recommended. When in particular the way they used to use the Boat from Cobh, Co. Cork. The film is set in Enniscorthy, Co. Wexford. So Eilis prob got the train over to Cobh or something. But the number one thing that got to me was the emotions. She showed true character as per Colm Tobin's novel.
THe plot as I said above was most appreciative very simple. Eilis is currently living with her Mother and Rose(Glascott). She gets a hankering to move to Brooklyn, New York City whom she was helped by Fr. Flood(Broadbent) in terms of a Visa AND a Job. She got a job as a sales person in Balloci a jewellery or something. Says I to meself, my god you could just literally sale into a job, but these days, totally different. So she meets a sexy young Italian buck Tony(Cohen). It is with great sadness, of which I won't bother getting into it, forces Eilis to return back to Ireland. So while back, her friend or neighbor Nancy(O' Higgins) sets her up with a guy, with a very cute mmmmm guy Jim Farrell(Gleeson). Before Eilish returns to IReland, TOny marries Eilis so that EIlis "promises" to return back to him. Whilst in Ireland, she gets feelings for Ireland again AND my precious Jim. So M Kelly(Brennan) being the villain I take it, makes up her mind for EVERYTHING by revealing "how small this world is", when she reveals that a "young girl from Enniscorthy", married TOny an "Italian". So on that note, I will leave you all to guess the rest. ahahah.