'Brooklyn' (2015) Paints a Powerfully Nostalgic Portrait of Love, Loss, and Home
Though Brookyln (2015) revolves around the experience of a single young girl's immigration from Ireland to New York in the 1950s, its emotional treatment of life's milestones makes it capable of resonating with anyone who has gone through those awkward "firsts" of youth.
This emotional resonance, this ability to grip onto the audience's sense of nostalgic longing for an uncertain future, is the kernel of Brooklyn's magic.
In addition to all these glam patterned skirts, of course.
The film follows Eilis Lacey (Saoirse Ronan) as she leaves behind her small, stone-walled, rural village in Ireland, along with her family, her friends, and everything she loves, for an unstable future in the busiest, most glamorous city in the world: New York. Eilis faces plenty of obstacles, from seasickness on the journey over to catty boardinghouse girls to feeling inadequate at her job. She must constantly navigate between her old, quaint life and her newfound, fast-paced NYC existence.
At the centre of these difficult choices is, of course, a decision between two men (we should all be so lucky): a born-and-bred NYC Italian and Eilis's first love, Tony Fiorello (Emory Cohen), and a sedate, gentle childhood friend Eilis reconnects with during a visit home (Domnhall Gleeson). In making this romantic vending machine selection, Eilis must effectively choose between returing to her simple past life in Ireland, or her shaky (but new and exciting) life in New York.
Pictured Above: Girl Getting What She Wants.
Pictured Below: Girl Getting Something Else That She Wants But Now She's Conflicted About It And Don't We All Wish We Had This Problem Instead Of Just Deciding What Kind Of Pizza To Order In Tonight.
Though separated from the viewer by decades, the film's incredible storytelling powers make Eilis's journey feel close to all of us. We can all remember the awkwardness of our first days at a new job, how useless and clumsy we felt. The film reminds us of the electric surges from fleeting hand touches on a first date, or the joy you feel when you see someone you love just standing there, waiting for you. Brooklyn will remind you of the first time you moved away from home--how lost you felt, then how proud when you realized that you built this life for yourself, all on your own. It will remind you of that feeling of contentment when you find that your life is yours.
But first, you'll look like this sloppy mess.
All these nuances of emotion and experience stem, primarily, from Nick Hornby's incredible screenplay, based on the novel by Colm Toibin. His storytelling is so simple, so straightforward, and so lacking in pretension or gimicks that it almost startles in its simplicity. We rarely see narratives so relaxed and streamlined in contemporary cinema. Hornby's work demonstrates the affectiveness of a solid script with nuanced dialogue and moderate pacing--it becomes enchanting in its easiness.
Of course, the film's heart is really Ronan's powerhouse performance as Eilis. Her ability, as a young actor, to transform from timid, naive, Ireland Eilis to the brassy, confident New York woman at the film's end is stunning. She tackles the role with an emotional depth and vulnerability that both captures and disarms viewers.
Plus, her seductive across-the-table gaze has come a really long way.
The last time I looked at anything like this, I was looking at an all-you-can-eat sushi menu while clinging to my double Long Island Iced Tea.
Yves Bélanger's incredibly rich cinematography adds to the script's nostalgic turns and Ronan's impassioned performance. The film produces different colour palettes from scene to scene, ensuring that whatever is on-screen is part of a cohesive mise-en-scene of decadent colour. Bélanger focuses on deep colours, like forest greens and seagreen teals, transforming Brooklyn from a simple period piece into something of a visual woolen blanket; the film wraps its viewers in its sensual colour-making, producing comfort in innocuous images.
I would like to live inside this film, thanks, bye.
Brooklyn's magic is undoubtedly its ability to absorb you into its narrative, to include you in a story that is at once general and individual. Everyone has felt like Eilis at one point; everyone has experienced failure, love, loss, and success in equal measure. Brooklyn reminds us that life isn't smooth or sure or steady. Life is rocky and unfair and strange. However, life can be beautiful, and it is this beauty and this voracious hunger for life that Brooklyn conveys so wonderfully.
I give Brooklyn 5/5 Sexy Period Piece Love Triangles
