A fine portrayal of a young woman's personal journey
Brooklyn quietly draws the audience in, keeps them interested - and delivers an old-school movie memory to cherish.
IN the early 1950s, a young Irish lass leaves her small-town home and the security of a loving family in search of a better life in America. What she experiences is neither uncommon nor particularly grim. It's just her own immigrant story: beautifully observed, quietly sensitive and deeply personal.
Directed by John Crowley, written by Nick Hornby and based on the book of the same name by Colm Toibin, Brooklyn doesn't bang the drum loudly (there's hardly a raised voice and not a car chase in sight) but it draws us in, keeps us interested - and delivers an old-school movie memory to cherish.
Eilis Lacey (Saoirse Ronan), the lass in question, is sweetly determined but shackled by a lack of opportunity and the limited aspirations of her peers. She has a part-time job at the local grocery, whose acid-tongued owner Miss Kelly (Brid Brennan) represents everything she abhors about small-town life. Her widowed mother (Jane Brennan) - long resigned to her own fate - represents the life that Eilis hopes to avoid.
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