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Brooklyn (2015), PG-13, ★★★★

Saoirse Ronan needs some love.
From the point of view of immigrants trying to start a new life in America, they would not know where to start. They have to go all in, if we want to use a poker analogy, to use their knowledge from another country to place themselves as both an American citizen and a citizen from their home country. It also brings a self-assured maturity in both life and in the movie as how the character or citizen will change in perspective in where he or she is heading while working in another field, trying to identify the American customs between people in general and in the workforce. This coming-of-age drama is a beautiful portrait of a self-assured mature woman trying to accommodate herself into 1950s America and being identified as a self-assured mature individual in the workforce.

A young Irish immigrant, Eilis Lacey (Saoirse Ronan) tries to navigate her way through 1950's Brooklyn as she departs from Ireland to her mother's (Jane Brennan) home of New York City. Ellis has been working in a shop in a small town in Ireland run by a petty woman, however, her sister has arranged her to go to the USA to start a new life. However, despite a rocky start, a woman in the bunk below in a ship, who is an experienced traveller, gives her advice to start her life in 1950's Brooklyn.

She finds an Irish boarding house in Brooklyn where she dines with the landlady and her residents each night. When Eilis finds a job in a department store, she is an introvert as she struggles to communicate with small talk with fellow people and with the customers. At a dance, she meets Tony (Emory Cohen), who comes from an Italian family and is attracted to her, begins a romance and even though a tragedy strikes Eilis and her family, it brings an ultimatum to both her and her future as the movie unfolds into a very good and suspenseful coming-of-age drama.

"Everything's better at Macy's." Idk. 
This is a very personal story of a woman trying to make her way into 1950s American life that converges Europeans to change their routine into an affable fable of letting go of the ways of living in a home country. She is in pain of leaving the familiarity and youthfulness of a native land to begin another chapter in a change of venue that swallows her into a new society of extroverts that is accustomed to the urban life. She does not know the urban life and we witness how she and immigrants have difficulty identifying different customs and rules of another country. Those are moments of sadness that will try, depending on your dignity, to turn into a moment of realization and jubilation to identify the new country as home.

Saoirse Ronan gives a low-key and outstanding performance that will guarantee her Oscar buzz for her wonderful and innocent portrayal of a two-dimensional character that is transitioning to adult independence in 1950s urban life. From her point of view, we explore the times as we see how a young female was treated back in its heyday in New York. Emory Cohen is wonderful and does not border onto cliched Italian stereotypes. He is a normal man not wanting to push the issue of Eilis trying to retreat from her familiarity of her home in Ireland. Jim Broadbent is fantastic as the priest, Julie Walters is funny as the landlady and Domnhall Gleeson gives another strong performance as her potential love interest.

This is a visual and nostalgic love letter to 1950s New York and present New York and we have to thank both the director, John Crowley and cinematographer, Yves Belanger. It is a luscious landscape of hope and inception of a potentially bright future. The visual colors of Ireland in the first and last act changes because of how Eilis has to make a decision of which country is titled as home. Again, the visual changes matches Eilis' maturity throughout the movie. It is a great character study. Even, Woody Allen and probably Spike Lee would appreciate this movie. This is a great coming-of-age drama that embraces the life of an immigrant from their eyes in an life-affirming manner but also with initial moments of pain. I was real impressed by the direction, camerawork and the performances all the way through. A fantastic period piece of filmmaking. The Top 10 list has now gotten crowded.

****


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