Review of In America (2003) by Phil T — 11 Dec 2007

Wow. Movies like this just don't touch me the way they used to. Yes, in the past I've been known to boo openly at the end of sentimental movies, my heartstrings twanged like Jimi H on Watchtower acid, the lump in my throat the size of your average bowling ball. But recently...? Nah. I second guess the script, read all the beats and roll my eyes by the closing credits. But this? Well, for starters, it does what so many films of its type fail so miserably at, which is make you care about its characters from the opening scene. As we discover the Irish family are illegal immigrants, 2 customs officers try to catch them out over how many children they have (the mother says 3, the father says 2). We then discover they have recently lost a young son. Brilliant writing and a narrative device which reoccurs throughout the movie to lurch the viewer from feelgood comedy to total sadness in a single line. The performances are absolutely spot-on by all 4 members of the family - in particular the 2 little girls who just eclipse any embarrassing tweeny you'll endure in your average fantasy or teen comedy, proving the idea of natural talent over drama school cheekiness.

Yes, this film is the embodiment of manipulative filmmaking, but it's done with such panache, intelligence and sincerity in its script (not say, with its string sections and weepy CU's) who cares if you find yourself bawling like a little tart next to your girlfriend and then confessing it in a review on Facebook? It could so easily have been a fish-out-of water comdram with Sandra Bullock. Instead what we have are a family surviving on the poverty line, at the raw edge of emotional sanity. A film of this type does not cross-cut an AIDS-ridden artist destroying his paintings with a sex scene during a violent thunder storm.

See it.