Brooklyn
(2015)
(2015)
(SPOILERS) Sweet,
well-observed little picture that dun well, as Saiorse Ronan emigrates from
Ireland (take a wild stab where) in the early ‘50s, discovers a whole new
world, then rediscovers a whole old world, entailing conflicting emotions over
the romantic entanglements each brings.
Ronan entirely
deserved her Best Actress Oscar nomination, assuredly navigating potentially
tricky trajectory for Eilis Lacy such that, in the third act, her errant behaviour
is never less than understandable. This is, after all, a picture all about the
lustre of familiar shores, in which a rather wonderfully cast Jim Broadbent
comforts Eilis early on in her US sojourn, that “Homesickness is like most sicknesses. It’ll make you feel wretched, and
then it’ll move on to somebody else”. Albeit, it sounds better when he says
it.
I was half
expecting the usual yarn of the naïve woman giving herself to a seemingly
besotted, perfect guy who then promptly loses interest (mostly because Emory
Cohen makes Tony Fiorello so
perfectly sincere, amiable and likeable, it was obviously too good to be true; it
helps too that the chemistry between Cohen and Ronan is palpable). So, when they
get rapidly hitched and she subsequently surfs back to Ireland solo, and then finds herself awash with
conflicting feelings, Brooklyn
revealed itself as a refreshing change from the norm.
John Crowley’s sensitive
direction ensures that, for all that Ellis is a good and proper girl, and her
new husband is a loving and devoted fellow, the trance she falls into as the
old life overcomes her is relatable; everyone around her blithely assumes she
will just resume her previous place, and she even encounters an impossibly
decent suitor in Domhnall Gleeson’s Jim Farrell.
It wouldn’t
really be accurate to call this a love triangle. It’s more a love
location-slip, as Eilis perceives two different lives and is unsure which dream
is real, at least until the spell is broken by external machinations. Ronan is
radiant, and some day that Oscar shall no doubt be hers. The evocation of
another era, meanwhile, is indescribably perfect, as if every place, no matter how
squalid in reality, was pristine during that decade. That’s a quibble, though.
This is, after all, a romantic melodrama, rather than some hard-hitting expose
of indelicate socio-economic truths.
As
involving as Eilis’ personal predicaments are, perhaps the sheerest pleasure of
the picture comes from the evening dinners at her boarding house, presided over
by Julie Walters in inimitable manner as landlady Madge Kehoe. If it isn’t the
duo of superior, scoffing man-hunters dissolving into peals of laughter, it’s
Madge’s delirious put-downs of the same; this kind of quick-fire repartee is immensely
pleasurable, naturally very funny and entirely unforced. How much of that is
from Colm Toibin’s novel or Nick Hornby’s screenplay, I don’t know, but Hornby
at least deserves credit for transposing it so effectively.
Obviously,
I’m not alone in such an endorsement, as the Beeb is apparently set to produce
the return of Mrs Keogh and her passers-through. Whether that’s a good idea or
not is questionable, since making a side order the main dish can often
highlight that it was its position as an appetiser that made it so effective.
Of course, Brooklyn will only further
underline the export appeal of the nostalgia-driven heritage-fixated Britain
film industry, but when such backward fascination produces a picture so
charming and well-observed, it becomes difficult to begrudge it.
That was
the unseen straggler of 2015 Best Picture Oscar nominees , so here’s my rundown ranking:
1. Mad Max:
Fury Road
2. Room
3. Spotlight
4. The Big Short
5. Bridge of
Spies
6. Brooklyn
7. The Martian
8. The
Revenant
Agree? Disagree? Mildly or vehemently? Let me know in the comments below.
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