Brooklyn (2015)
PG-13
5 Stars out of 5
Director John Crowley
Cinematography Yves
Belanger
Saoirse Ronan Eilis Lacey
Emory Cohen Tony
Fiorello
Maeve McGrath Mary
(friend)
Fiona Glascott Rose
Lacey
Jane Brennan Mary
Lacey (mother)
Jessica Pare Miss
Fortini
Jim Broadbent Father
Flood
Domhnall Gleeson Jim
Farrell
Julie Walters Mrs.
Kehoe
Brid Brennan Miss
Kelly
There is a kind of European movie that stands in stark
contrast to almost every American movie. This European genre includes good
writing, good acting, and themes focused on the human experience. To be sure,
there are many American movies with these elements, too. The difference is the
manner in which this “genre”, this European film type tells its story (at least
in my mind), and this is with kindness. To simplify this special quality into a
single word is far too inadequate a way of looking at the point I am trying to
make. Perhaps an analogy would work better. Let’s use that staple from Hollywood,
the road trip. In most well-made American movies (and we can certainly use
Ridley Scott’s “Thelma and Louise”, 1991 to illustrate what I am trying to say)
there is the three part sequence to the story: describe the back-story, build
some dramatic tension/conflict, and then resolve the tension via some climatic
scene. It is the path the American film will inevitably take, that aspect that makes
it stand apart from the European film, the American will almost certainly
introduce violence. Consider for example, Thelma and Louise’s final wave
good-bye as they sail over the cliff, not to mention the gun-play that led them
there. Now consider the 2015 Irish-Canadian film “Brooklyn”: a young woman
comes to America from Ireland to find her way in life. It is a simple, sensitively
told tale. It too has tension, a villain, conflict, and a climax. What it
utterly lacks is violence. The story can be related to and enjoyed by anyone, even
Americans - even though, not one bullet was fired.
“Brooklyn” begins in 1950’s Ireland with the introduction of
a young woman working in a store, Eilis Lacey (Saoirse Ronan). She works with
several other young women for an older woman, Miss Kelly (Brid Brennan). We
quickly learn Miss Kelly is a very mean-spirited creature and all of her young
workers live in fear of her. If there is any lingering doubt in the viewer’s
mind as to who is this film’s villain (if it truly has one), Miss Kelly will
work hard to help you identify her. Eilis lives with her older sister Rose
(Fiona Glascott) and widowed mother, Mary Lacey (Jane Brennan). Rose loves
Eilis deeply and wants more for Eilis than their little town of Enniscorthy can
provide. Rose will arrange with the help of an Irish priest in America, Father
Flood (Jim Broadbent) to get Eilis out of the boy-friendless/Miss Kelly rut,
fate has placed her in. Rose’s generosity will be for the films’ first third, a
good example of “good deeds reaping a kind of punishment” (to paraphrase the
saying somewhat).
Eilis will wave good–bye to her mother and sister from
aboard a steamship bound for America and her future. She will gain a new friend
and useful advice on the ship, but her seasickness on-board will foreshadow another
type of sickness that she will soon experience in America. She will have her
physical needs all prepared for her via the thoughtful intervention of Father
Flood. Eilis will live with an understanding if somewhat demanding landlady (Mrs.
Kehoe; Julie Waters) and with several other young women of Eilis’ age in a
boarding house in Brooklyn. She will get a job at an up-scale department store
and work for an experienced woman who also will care for Eilis’ emotional and physical
needs (Mrs. Fortini – Jessica Pare). But Eilis is not happy. It is not
immediately clear if Eilis is having troubles dealing with the culture shock of
New York City vis-à-vis Enniscorthy, or if her rambunctious fellow boarders are
intimidating her, or if she simply misses and fears she will never see again
her sister Rose (tellingly, her sense of loss relative to her mother is
somewhat more subdued).
Again with some helpful intervention from those around Eilis,
people that care for her and worry about her worsening emotions, she is put
into a situation where she meets a young Italian-American, Tony Fiorello (Emory
Cohen), Like almost all of her American experiences, Eilis has little to fall
back on in terms of understanding Tony; fortunately for Eilis, she doesn’t need
any more understanding than simple human kindness. The match is made, it
matures, it crosses a threshold, and then the movie’s conflict is brought in:
there has been a tragedy back home in Ireland. Eilis feels strong pressures to
return home, at least temporarily. The conflict is that now Eilis has a new
home, new friends, a boyfriend, the new life for which she left Ireland for
America; and back home, she remembers all too well the reasons why she left in
the first place. Even though Ireland was her home, there were too many “Miss
Kelly’s” and too few “Tony’s”.
Eilis will eventually return to Ireland and to the aftermath
of the sad event that drew her back. This time, though, the town will seemingly
rise up as one (barring one individual) to apparently try to convince her to
remain this time. She will get a new, professional level job that she is
particularly good at, she will get a new boyfriend, Jim Farrell (Domhnall
Gleeson) who is clearly a good man, she will be reunited with her former best
friend, Mary (Maeve McGrath), and she will feel unrelenting pressure from her
mother to stay in Ireland. Everything will move into alignment to keep her in
Enniscorthy; everything but Eilis’ conscience. Ironically, it will be through
the self-righteous involvement of the movie’s villain, Miss Kelly, and her new
attempts to hurt someone, that will finally show Eilis the path she must take
in life.
I have written the above summary in a pretty obtuse manner
by not detailing the tragedy that draws Eilis back to Ireland or the details of
Eilis’ mother’s motivations. The details are emotional, compelling and key plot
points. Besides these undisclosed aspects of the plot, it is sufficient to say
that Eilis makes several decisions in her young life that are largely
understandable (even if not all of them are honorable or sensible). Her actions
have created the dramatic tension in this movie. She freely made some choices
that were hers to make: move to America, fall in love with Tony, return to
Ireland, become involved with Jim. These were her choices. Her mother’s
attempts to draw Eilis back and to keep her were her choices; they too were understandable,
if not all honorable. The meanness and bitterness of Miss Kelly were her
choices in life, though in one case, there was something decent that actually came
out of her spite – it helped Eilis open her eyes to her situation.
With respect to the movie arc as a whole, the conflict in
the movie is real and compelling, it is understandable by anyone. The pain of
departure at the Irish port as Eilis bids her sister farewell is there for all
in the audience to feel and think about. We all watch the little steps in Eilis’
maturation, we might wonder what each of us would do, and likely we all want
the best for her as she moves through life; a simple story, beautifully told. “Brooklyn”
is most notably told by Saorise Ronan’s remarkable skill of portraying Eilis. Director John Crowley brings the camera close in
on Ronan’s face, often framed by some significant scene in the background. The
background will help to convey the time or mood at some point in the movie, but
in fact, it will be Ronan’s lovely, expressive eyes and mouth that will be the
true conveyors of mood. The direction, camera work and writing are all
significantly good in “Brooklyn”, but it is on Ronan’s vulnerable shoulders
that this movie truly rests.
Writer Nick Hornby has decided to use a kind of symmetry in
his story telling. Such symmetry creates a point of view about life in general.
On Eilis’s trip across the Atlantic, she is befriended by a travel-experienced
Irishwoman. Eilis will have her own opportunity to help someone in a similar
manner. Tony will pick up Eilis from night-school each evening, even though he
must leave work to do so – it is sweet, and it helps illustrate his love and
devotion to Eilis. But there will come a time in the movie when Eilis picks him
up from work (the camera view of her waiting is framed by the Brooklyn Bridge) –
both the framing and her actions work together to support the idea of her
devotion to Tony and to Brooklyn. These examples of life repeating itself for
Eilis all have her as the one taking the action previously done by others on
her behalf. It will help establish her growth, but it also helps to make the bigger
point that life, simple and beautiful can come around in each person’s life and
can do so in a manner that is at the very least dramatic to the individual. And
quite frankly, can be thought to be dramatic to any one as an example of how
life is truly lived: people love and care for one another or maybe (as with the
Miss Kelly’s of the world) don’t; but all of this goes on without car chases,
shoot-outs or false examples of human drama.
This movie is a treat for your heart and your mind. There
was one flaw: I found the character of Tony’s little brother way too Hollywood
stereotypical of the precocious (but sweet) young brother. This character seems
to me to be a rare example of poor writing in this movie (the actor was fine
and largely stole each of his scenes). However, that poor character choice
aside, this movie is a gem and easily earned its various Oscar nominations
(Best Picture, Best Actress, and Best Adapted Screenplay) – it is the unusual
example of where I am in complete agreement with the academy on all choices.
