Review of Brooklyn (2015) by Billie S — 20 Jun 2016

Brooklyn is more a life drama than a love story. It is a film about immigrants torn apart between two worlds, old and new, modern and traditional. Ellis is between them as a symbol of those differences. The name Ellis, perhaps do not accidentally match with the name of an Island Ellis which together with the Liberty Island where is the Statue of Liberty are symbols of American immigrants.

Brooklyn is not a movie that will take your breath away. It has over forced romantic view of the American Dream, which in reality is not even close. There are mach successful and stronger movies about immigration and survival, but maybe it is actually the reason why this movie is nominated for the Best Picture at the Oscars 2016.

But maybe the reason is that in this movie Catholic Church is shown how it helps immigrants in their more successful adaptation, which corresponds to the historical facts. The Catholic Church is the main subject in the biographical movie Spotlight, too, which is also nominated for the Best Picture at the Oscars 2016. But here the Catholic Church is involved in hiding the crimes committed by priests. It is rarely two movies that in different ways deal with the same topic to be nominated in the category for the Best Picture in the same year.

Yet Brooklyn is an enjoyable movie without unnecessary scenes, dialogues and pathetic. It is a solid movie with an emotional and interesting story who occupies the attention.