Brooklyn

            The problem with seeing a movie after it has been nominated for multiple Academy Awards is one thing; there is hype of course but that just makes the audience get nit-picky. It is another thing to go see a film after knowing one of the Academy Awards it is up for is Best Picture. That's the game-changer. That means not only is the acting most likely superior but that this movie could have some curveballs, twists, or shocking heartbreaks that may affect you deeply. It's hard to walk into a theater of a such a film and not anticipate that you will love it. I mean, how could you not? It was nominated for a reason(s), right? "If I don't like this movie then how do I ever show my face in a theater again?" You see how stressful it could be just going to see a good movie? Pretty awesome, huh?

           With a little bit of an abrupt start (yeah that's right, beginnings can be abrupt, too), Brooklyn is off and running inside the head of our heroine, Eilis (AY-lish), anticipating her leaping decision to go from her home in Enniscorthy, Ireland to the Promised Land of Brooklyn, NY. She doesn't just jump ship on a whim even though it seems that way, her sister Rose has a contact overseas with the promise of a job that would suit Eilis' yearning for growth. The boat trip alone from Ireland to America is something out of hell and a true eye-opener for a period piece that shows a time that used-to-be.

            The small cliches of home sickness with a plot of an immigrant is all but cliche this time around. It must be the face of Saoirse Ronan that you just can't look away from. She made me want to go back to my home in Ireland so badly that I forgot I was American. Take that sentence with a grain of salt but do pay attention to how she masters every emotion in the blink of an eye and when reality sinks in, the loneliness is palpable. With every risk comes opportunity and Eilis begins to step out of her shell at the Irish dance club she frequents with her boarding house roommates and leads to a one Tony Fiorello (Emory Cohen) asking her to dance. What's he doing in that club? Glad you asked, he's an Italian man that likes Irish girls and Eilis' poise and confidence are hard to ignore.

             The story that Eilis and Tony spark is very lovely if I do say so myself. There's a certain charm and cleverness bouncing between the two of them that draws you in from the first song on the dance floor. This "feel good vibe" is a theme in many of the scenes actually, especially the dinner table conversations at Eilis' boarding house. Her landlord, Mrs. Keogh (Julie Walters- you know her as Mrs. Weasley), better not see you with elbows on the table or declining to say prayer before meals but her wise cracks with a subtle aged-liveliness serves well as comic relief for her five female tenants.

            I hate to get personal but I have to admit there was some doubt in my mind of why this was chosen among the nominees for this year's Best Picture. That has now changed. Part of me wants to complicate this and dive into a laundry list of how stirring the lighting was off Saoirse Ronan's eyes or how much the set designers nailed the details of 1952 or how the dialogue was spotless or how this is a story of immigration but so beautifully executed that it seems like a glance into another human's life blah blah blah but I don't really want to. I want to keep it as simple as Brooklyn does. Sometimes you just like or even love a movie because it takes you into one person's life as if you're looking through a window. That person has done and seen so much more that what you're seeing just from looking at them. Somehow the 1 hour and 45 minutes of Brooklyn harnesses that experience and lets you see how much lies behind something that looks like just a glance. GRADE: 8/10