"Brooklyn"

Title: Brooklyn

Director: John Crowley

Writer: Nick Ornby (screenplay), Colm Toìbìn (novel)

Category: Drama, Romance

Duration: 111 min

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Presented at several of the most notorious festivals around the world and with a limited release in theatres back in November, Brooklyn is another one of the many movies nominated at the Golden Globes. In fact, even though it didn't receive the same sensational publicity that many of the other nominees are having through this award season, it is still coming out strong among them, by collecting recognitions in different categories. 

Set in the 1950's, Brooklyn tells the story of Eilis, a young Irish girl who is forced, by unfortunate circumstances, to leave her small village and board on a ship to New York to start a new and better life for herself. 

Life as an immigrant is not easy and Eilis learns it straight away. She never left her small town and Brooklyn is a much bigger reality than the one she was used to. Even though she exchanges letters with her sister Rose regularly, and Father Flood, the priest who helped her settle at the Mrs Keogh's residence, always finds a way for her to feel at home in a strange country, Eilis is alone. 

Writing letters to her sister helps against the melancholy and homesickness, but the feeling of alienation is always there to remind her that she doesn't belong. 

According to her friends the only cure against nostalgia is love, and for Eilis Tony, an Italo-American son of immigrants, becomes exactly that person that will help her feel a little bit at home.  

Faithful adaptation of Colm Toìbìn's homonymous novel, Brooklyn is a well made and unpretentious movie that clearly depicts the struggle that every immigrant lives through when they decide to move away from home. 

The cinematography represents clearly the difference between Ireland and Brooklyn by using panoramic shots as well as different tonality in the colours. Ireland and Eilis's town are dark, gloomy and cloudy. The predominant colour is grey and it mirrors Eilis' mood and feeling of dissatisfaction. She is living a life made of routines and the landscape surrounding her reflects that explicitly. However, as soon as she arrives in Brooklyn everything becomes brighter and warmer, highlighting that idea of the American dream that every immigrant in the 1950's was looking for. The predominant colours in this boisterous city are red and orange. Everything seems more glamorous and there is a spreading warmth that surrounds her. In this film Brooklyn portrays precisely that new beginning Eilis was looking for, that promise of a better future for herself.

Along with the cinematography the cast ensemble gave truthful performances in portraying their characters. Saoirse Ronan understood completely Eilis and her fears as well as her tremendous courage and naivëty typical of a young girl who is embarking on a difficult journey towards the unknown. Her body language as well as her facial expressions are heartfelt and honest. Her chemistry with the two main male characters, portrayed by Emory Cohen and Domhnall Gleeson, is natural and real. 

In the script the main themes that the movie, as well as the novel, wants to highlight are clear, from the fear of taking that leap of faith that pushes Eilis to move away from family and friends, to the surprise and joy of new found love or that gut-wreaking feeling of never belonging in a new city so different from home. All these emotional spectrums are analysed and well represented in Brooklyn. The relationship between Eilis and her sister Rose, or the ones that she learns to cherish with her new friends in Brooklyn show how human connection are fundamental and valuable when a person decides to leave all that they know behind to start anew.  

All in all, Brooklyn is a simple movie that succeeded brilliantly in telling a love story as well as depicting a slice of the postwar Era in which many people had to leave their country to find fortune elsewhere, making it easy for the audience to empathyse with the characters and be emotionally invested in the story.

Till next time,

Fred.

Here's the trailer: