Brooklyn (2015)

BROOKLYN  (2015)  ¢ ¢ ¢ 1/2
    D: John Crowley
    Saoirse Ronan, Emory Cohen, Domhnall Gleeson,
    Jim Broadbent, Julie Walters, Jessica Paré, 
    Fiona Glascott, Jane Brennan, Nora-Jane Noone 
This is a movie about coming and going, leaving and arriving, risk and opportunity and going back and finding your place in the world. It's the immigrant experience told through the story of a young Irish woman named Eillis (Saoirse Ronan), who emigrates to New York somewhere around the middle of the 20th century. There's seasickness on the boat going over, homesickness after she gets there, the drudgery of a job in a department store, and the catty behavior of the other girls in the boarding house where she rents a room. She has allies (a priest played by Jim Broadbent) and assets (she's smart and has a head for numbers), and eventually there's an Italian boyfriend (Emory Cohen) who takes her to the beach at Coney Island, but it's a struggle. Ronan gives a beautifully understated performance, conveying Eillis's uncertainty, resilience, determination and inner strength, her transition to adulthood playing out before your eyes. Her story might be specific to its time frame and country of origin, but in an increasingly immigrant world, it's hard not to see it as universal. Change a few of those details and she could be our ancestors. She could be us.