Brooklyn
Director: John
Crowley
Writer: Nick Hornby
Starring: Saoirse
Ronan, Emory Cohen, Domhnall Gleeson
Rating: Four stars
out of five
Available in
theaters now.
Human decency is a
tough thing to put in cinematic terms. In the real world, you can see
it whenever donations come in after a natural disaster or in
something as small as someone helping a lost child find her parents
at a theme park. But dramatically, human decency tends to be poison.
By making characters in a story “amenable,” as Saoirse Ronan's
Brooklyn character, Eilis, is described at one point, it
generally removes the easiest source of tension a story can cook up.
The vast majority of movies will eschew decency, or pour heaps of
prefab evilness atop it to set up a juxtaposition and simple
narrative creation of good overcoming bad.
However, Brooklyn
does not rely on what is easy in storytelling, yet gives off a
sense of ease and grace. It has no villains, not really. There is one
person from Eilis's past who is something of a pot stirrer because
she's a cranky old lady, but even she is not outright evil. And that
is refreshing, because nobody in the movie twists their mustache to
relish how bad they're being. They're all in search of something that
will make them content with life, even in the face of the separation,
loneliness, and disaster life nevertheless throws at them.
The story of that
elusive contentment is enough for Brooklyn to subsist. It's a
meal in itself. Eilis makes her trip to the New York borough because
her older sister, the family's breadwinner in the wake of their
father's pre-film death, cannot afford to provide for both Eilis and
their mother, who is withering in bereavement. Eilis has an gloomy
job at a local grocery, with a boss who takes pleasure in making
things difficult for people – not in a cute way. Eilis understands
her sister's decision, and is grateful for the opportunity,
particularly the efforts her sister went to to secure a boarding
house and department store job for her in the glamorous city across
the ocean.
Of course, Eilis's
New York experience is not glamorous. It's hard. She's sad all the
time. She doesn't know anyone and she's suspicious of anyone who
wants to connect with her. Her voice sounds funny, and Ronan makes
her timid and unsure, unlike the falsely confident Americans around
her. Brooklyn makes a point to have another character tell her
to pretend she knows exactly where she's going at all times in order
to fit in. It's both a loving ode to how Americans appear to
outsiders and something of a wry knock against us.
But the
appreciation for the American life wins out in the central love story
of Brooklyn. When Eilis meets Tony (Emory Cohen) at a
laughably underpopulated dance meant to facilitate Irish pairings –
the name Tony is information enough to prove that the dance
organizers' Irish-centric idea has failed – she begins to feel more
like she has a place in this new country. Each of them is sweet as
they circle each other, fumbling their way through what they think
are the motions of how romantic relationships work. They are shot by
director John Crowley and cinematographer Yves Bélanger with a
warmth that bumps up against the edge of the classical 1950s
Technicolor era while still keeping it grounded on a human scale. The
streets are an inviting reddish clay color, the sun looks dazzling on
them as their love grows. Each is eternally considerate, even when
they go through the excruciating longing that accompanies their
desire for the validation of each other. They don't snap or get
dejected in moments of disappointment, particularly when tragedy
strikes Eilis's family again, calling her back home to Ireland.
Again, the personal
consideration comes into play, along with a dollop of emotional
honesty. Tony expresses how badly he does not want Eilis to go home
because he knows it could lead to her deciding not to return – she
wasn't eager about coming to America in the first place. She is
honest with him about that temptation, and the return home gives her
so many reasons to stay. She gets a temporary job in town using her
fierce intellect. Her inability to get something like that was the
primary reason for leaving. Her family and friends desperately wish
she could stay, and they make statements that imply it is decided she
will not head back to New York.
She meets the man
of her family's dreams for her, Jim (Ex Machina's Domhnall
Gleeson), who is every bit the type of person who would be suitable
for her. He is not secretly a jerk. He's not embezzling from his
family's business or trying to hurt anyone. He is, indeed, every bit
a good person as Eilis and Tony. He goes out of his way to not
pressure Eilis into sticking around for what could very well be a
good, happy life. Smartly, Crowley and Bélanger make the Ireland of
Eilis's return brighter than before she left. It's still a more
muted, grayer place, but the sun hangs over a solitary beach in a way
that makes the choice facing Eilis dizzyingly hard to make. She and
at least some of those connected to her will be upset in one way or
another with whatever decision she makes, but none of them are
insincere in their hopes.
The brilliance of
Brooklyn lies in its lack of judgement in these motivations.
It's natural to want the people you love to be near to you. It's
human to wish for difficult circumstances to be easier to deal with.
And it's okay to be disappointed in how things shake out. But being
resolute is how you tackle that disappointment, how you begin to
create contentment with your new life situation. It doesn't have to
happen all at once, but it'll be all right. Good, even.
No comments:
Post a Comment