Review of Brooklyn (2015) by Bigeyes — 04 Jun 2016

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.