A compelling adaptation of Irish novelist Colm Toíbín’s novel, with an Oscar worthy performance from Saoirse Ronan.

Joyce Glasser reviews Brooklyn (November 6, 2015), Cert. 12A, 111 min.

What do you have when you strip a film of all violence, nudity, superhuman action heroes, foul language and CGI and you don’t fill the gap with animals or sentimentality? The answer is Brooklyn, beautifully adapted from Colm Tóibín’s novel by novelist and scriptwriter Nick Hornby (Wild, An Education). While a love- and coming-of-age story told against the background of Irish immigration to America in the 1950s is hardly ground-breaking film material, Brooklyn feels like a breath of fresh air.

The only work Eilis Lacy (Saoirse Ronan) can find in County Wexford is a part-time job in ‘Nettles’ Kelly’s (Brid Brennan) grocery. Mrs. Kelly, a vindictive, harpy, is what lies in store for Eilis if she remains in Enniscorthy. Twice in the film, though, Mrs Kelly inadvertently facilitates Eilis’s difficult choices and, in an ironic twist, she proves to be Eilis’s saviour. Leaving is not that simple though, even if Eilis is fortunate enough to have Father Flood (Jim Broadbent), a generous Irish-American priest, to assist her in Brooklyn. Her widowed mother (Jane Brennan), her unmarried, saintly sister, (Fiona Glascott) and her best friend are in Ireland. Brooklyn is the great unknown.

On the ship and at immigration, Georgina, a blond bombshell (Eva Birthistle) takes the bewildered Eilis under her wing. On a return trip the following year, Eilis has learned enough to take on the role of mentor to yet another girl seeking a better life in America.

In the Brooklyn boarding house for Catholic girls run with an iron fist, a kind heart and a wicked repartee by Mrs Kehoe (a scene-stealing Julie Walters), Eilis continues her education. She manages to enjoy a social life, by going out with her giddy, stylish house mates, while holding down a salesgirl job and studying accounting in the evening.

When she meets Tony (Emory Cohen) at a dance, her new-found confidence is enabling and very becoming. Tony, an Italian plumber, does not share Eilis’s interest in books, but is as ambitious as she, in addition to being polite, fun-loving and romantic.

Saoirse Ronan and Emory Cohen in Brooklyn

He shares his plans to set up a construction business with his family, and suggests Eilis could do the accounting. While the Irish and the Italians traditionally do not mix, this is not West-Side Story, and his background is not a deal breaker. It is a testament to the careful casting and attention paid to even the smallest roles, that Tony’s little brother Frankie (James DiGiacomo) is allowed to steal every scene he’s in.

Though Emory Cohen is short and lacks the classic good looks of a Jake Abel or Hayden Christensen, there are flashes of Marlon Brando and James Dean about him that makes it as difficult for us, as it is for Eilis, to write him off when she returns to Ireland for a funeral and meets the alluring Jim Farrell (Domhnall Gleeson). Well-off, educated, refined, tall and attractive, Jim is the most eligible bachelor in the land.

Saoirse Ronan and Domhnall Gleeson in Brooklyn

Being a New Yorker now confers upon Eilis a kind of celebrity status that adds to the glow in her heart from her thoughts of Tony. People want to be with her, even Jim, whom she might never have met, let alone attracted, as an awkward shop clerk at Mrs Kelly’s.

We are spared any Nicholas Sparks-type melodrama as Eilis makes the difficult choice between two countries and two enticing suitors. Director John Crowley ensures that we share Eilis’s anguish, although the explicit ending is an unfortunate, false step in the film.

Saoirse Ronan, who was Oscar nominated at 13 for her supporting role in Atonement is due a Best Actress Award at 21 for Brooklyn. She is in every shot, frequently in close up, but you never tire of her mutable features and unpredictable reactions. Ronan manages to convey an astonishing array of emotions without a trace of effort, let alone histrionics. Her character transforms before our eyes from the self-effacing girl with a bleak, but certain future in small-town, small-minded Ireland into a self-confident, attractive woman who forges her own future in the new world. Ronan’s perfectly modulated performance is matched by the charismatic Emory Cohen’s in his delectable breakout performance.

Mary O’Driscoll, Julie Walters, Nora-Jane Noone, Saoirse Ronan, Eve Macklin and Emily Bett Rickards in Brooklyn

The production values, including Michael Brook’s lovely score, are superb, and in full service to the script. We are aware of the period, but the production design, costumes, hair and make-up do not dominate the film with a self-conscious period feel. Through the cinematography, we feel the shifts in mood from claustrophobic, muted, drab Ireland to bright, bustling and colourful Brooklyn; just as Eilis’ costumes and hair and make-up support her gradual transformation.

That said, it is a shame that Canada doubles for Brooklyn. That it was not shot in Brooklyn might be apparent even to those who have never been there from the way scenes in the borough are cropped and from their generic nature. The title makes the borough – the location of so many recent films – a character in the film, but we do not see enough of it or feel its special buzz.

At times, too, you feel that Eilis’s journey is a bit too smooth and that a few more set backs and a bit more culture shock would have increased the tension and balanced out her indomitable nature. This impression is not helped by the fact that the filmmakers take the edge off a few of the minor characters, making everyone but Miss Kelly almost cuddly.

These criticisms aside, Brooklyn succeeds because the cast and filmmakers capture the essence of the uplifting novel that, while understated, leaves us with a deep and lasting impression.

You can watch the film trailer here: