Brooklyn (2015)

[Watashi]

[Watashi]

Hey Wats, let's take your favorite movie The Umbrellas of Cherbourg and give it a 1950's Irish makeover with beautiful cinematography and stunning performances. Let's make you cry like a little girl nonstop. Okay? Good.

[Skitch]

I caught the trailer for this on a trailer channel on Roku (you don't pick what plays, it just runs current trailers). Normally not my bag, but I was almost crying at the trailer. Looks great.

[number8]

Really liked this. Very straightforward, but very measured in hitting the emotional points. I like that it goes into the hard parts of being an immigrant that are typically overshadowed by the more extreme hardships and discriminations in other immigrant movies, so this hits closer for me than something like, uh, The Immigrant.

[Pop Trash]

This is very charming and Saoirse Ronan is mesmerizing. I kept thinking it's like a cross between Titanic and "Mad Men" but I'm sure that's reductive. Anyway...

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the bits after she goes back to Ireland get a little soapy, plus I think we all knew which fella she would wind-up with, but it's the journey not the destination, etc.

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It's old fashioned in a very pleasant way. My dearly departed Grandmother would have loved it.

[Watashi]

I've been reading a lot of reviews online and no one else is making the connection to The Umbrellas of Cherbourg. It's all I could think about during the film. I know the film is based on an award-winning book, but a lot of the shots and beats in this film were lifted straight from Demy's masterpiece. Not a criticism, just an observation.

[number8]

It's old fashioned in a very pleasant way. My dearly departed Grandmother would have loved it.

My screening was literally 90% senior citizens.

[dreamdead]

This was pitch-perfect for me. Saoirse Ronan is absolutely stunning throughout, and there are sequences where the film just lingers on her face and there are a cascade of conflicting emotions that wash over her. While the film is indeed straight-forward, it's also immaculately rendered. Emory Cohen is solid in the Brando role, finding sensitivity and charm where caricature could overwhelm.

If anything, I'd agree that the Ireland stuff in the third act threatens a bit too much small-drama as a counterpoint to the film's larger context, but that's a small complaint.

[Grouchy]

This is not a specially memorable movie in any way but its careful direction brings the best out of the "slice of life" type of material. I think a lot of the merit is also due to the actors - even though the story is standard and we've seen it a thousand times before the characters they create have just enough uniqueness to stand up and break the stereotype.

I'm also a sucker for stories about immigrants.