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Brooklyn (Blu-ray Review)

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brooklyn-review-slideStarring: Saoirse Ronan, Emory Cohen, Jim Broadbent, Domhnall Gleeson, Julie Walters
Directed By: John Crowley
Running Time: 111 mins
BBFC Certificate: 12
UK Release Date: February 29th 2016

Our Score

If you want Oscar nominations, you need to put Domhnall Gleeson in your movie. He was in four films released in 2015 that got multiple nominations. Brooklyn was one of those movies (alongside Star Wars, The Revenant and Ex Machina), although he doesn’t show up until the second half.

Based on Colm Toibin’s book, Brooklyn is about young Irish woman Eilis (Saoirse Ronan), whose sister Rose and a priest have organised for her to have a new life in New York, where they believe she will have more opportunities. After a difficult crossing, Eilis starts a new job at a department store while living at a boarding house in Brooklyn, and begins training to be a bookkeeper. [Read more…]

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Brooklyn (Cinema Review) – Saoirse Ronan goes from Ireland to New York

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brooklyn-review-slideStrarring: Saoirse Ronan, Domhnall Gleeson, Michael Zegen, Julie Walters
Director: John Crowley
Running Time: 112mins
UK Certificate: 12A

Our Score

Colm Toibin’s novel about an Irish girl finding her feet in New York has been much admired, but I found it a little underpowered. Nick Hornby’s adaptation suffers from similar problems, namely that not an awful lot happens, and when it does it’s so understated as to be almost invisible.

One thing that is undeniable is Ronan’s performance as Eilis Lacey; a sweet, honest, nice girl who has to suddenly cope with being the breadwinner of her family. Ronan is not the town’s glamour puss, or even pretty, but her puffy face, with piercing, honest eyes, is a wonder to behold. She is always sympathetic, completely real and without her the film would be even more paper thin. Eilis lives in a stifling, suffocating Irish town in the 1950s, where buying shoe polish on a Sunday is seen as an evil sin. All the boys look the same, with their oiled hair and rugby blazers, so it is a relief when she is picked as the member of the family to go to Brooklyn to find a new life. [Read more…]

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