Review
Spoiler Alert:
The synopsis of Brooklyn is relatively simple. A young woman works in the town sundry, general good store. She seems to be capable and efficient, whereas her employer is insulting to her customers. Later at dinner it is revealed to her mother and sister (though it seems that her sister already knows) that she is to be traveling to America for work. She indicates that her housing is secure as well, and that all of this has been secured by a Priest. Her mother mentions something of her return, yet they all feel that this might not be a possibility. The young girl is very naïve on the ship. Eating and getting food poisoning, only to be later guided by another more experienced passenger. She comes to live in a boarding house with other women, faces homesickness, takes classes, and works. As spring comes she finds adjustment and eventually love. She even marries. Due to a tragedy she has to return to Ireland, and eventually begins to have a double life, and new love. One day when someone says that they know the truth, she reveals to her mother that she must return. And return she does, to her husband.
Over all Brooklyn is great! It is a very honest whole-rest-paced portrayal of a young woman as she navigates the journey to a new country and her first months there. It is very honest when it shows Eilis’ food poisoning on the boat, her initial maladjustment at her job at a shop, her somewhat dowdy attire in her initial arrival in Brooklyn, and her periods of homesickness, nostalgia, and tears. In the process, as I said in the preview, this film is a visual delight which uses great lighting, costumes and good facial acting to light up the screen, and at times dull dreary Brooklyn.
Pastel picture perfect image
As the story progresses we can see more smiles rather than downcast eyes on Eilis’ facial palette. Her grip on the country is also experienced in the certainty in her tone. But the biggest arena where you see that she has fully blossomed in her new country is evident by the different pastel hues of her costumes. I love the yellow cinched at the waist full skirted chiffon dress she wears as she drops off a letter in the mail box. I love the periwinkle top she wears as the other young ladies teach her to eat pasta. She is simply a vision.
The problem with this film
I feel like people are going to invent a way to throw tomatoes at me through the internet for even having this subheading. After all, this movie was named one of the best of the year, nominated for the Best Picture Academy Award, and some have compared it to a beautiful Victorian Novel. It is a beautiful movie. It is heartfelt and honest, and I go to expound on this further. But I just have to say that at times I found that this movie dragged on and on. I am no adrenaline junkie when it comes to movies. However, it just seemed that this movie from her arriving to New York, to her troubled days at work, to crying upon receiving a letter, to just living… seemed to really drag on. Some might say that this is a throwback to neorealism- which showed scenes that nobody really wanted to see. I like the emotional honesty and honest portrayal of what it is like for someone to adjust in a new country. But, perhaps 3 minutes somewhere along the way could have been shortened.
In addition, I thought that the end had such an anti-climactic ending. Yes, it is heartwarming to see her and her husband embrace and kiss when they rejoin. It is lovely, how the camera freezes on that moment. But, to portray so much of her courting another man , settling in at her sister’s former job, going on and on about her new life in Ireland, and then before you know it she is in the arms of her husband—it just seemed a bit sudden! Her reunion with her husband should have been a bit lengthened. Or they could have cut down on her time in Ireland where she takes on her old life. That just went on and on…
A Feminist Story
A line that really resonated with me was when someone told Eilis, “Pretty plus you have qualifications, “Which I think is often a University of Michigan or any college educated woman’s dream. To us, this is the idea of having it all. Many of us are not at the stage of children, a house, and a husband. But to be a confident, pretty woman, with an education is more of the current dream.
If I were to take it one step further I would say that this movie is a feminist one. This is a woman who makes a solo journey, gets a job, takes classes, decides how she feels about someone, decides what she is going to do with her body, etc. And all of this is done before feminism was a real word.
A mystery
The one thing that I was surprised to hear about was that her sister died, or more so how she died. Sometimes as she looked at letters from Eilis she looked a bit of envious. It mostly looked wistful, but with a tinge of envy or lost wondering. I wonder, especially as she could see her sister carve a life for herself, of what would happen with her life. Was she worried about always being the older sister forced to take care of her mother? Was she sad? Did that lead to her death?
We never found out why she died. A small part of me thought that it was suicide. But after that idea was ruled out, I thought that perhaps her death had to do with more emotional reasons rather than physical.
Throwback to Neorealism
This film is somewhat reminiscent of I Girasoli (the sunflower) directed by Vittorio De Sica and the screenplay written by Cesare Zavattini. They are both behind the nonrealistic classic Bicycle Thief (Or in Italian Bicycle Thieves). In Girasoli, Mastro Mastrianni’s character Antonio loved Sophia Loren’s character Giovanna and even marries her- though he says that he is not the marrying type. Later during World War II he is almost half dead in the snow, when a Russian woman saves him. He eventually marries her. While in Italy Giovanna and her mother-in-law are consumed with worry. One day Giovanna goes to Russia only to find Antonio… married to another with a child.
In this movie, Antonio cannot put his dual identities together: His Italian past, with what Russia and the Russian woman who finds him. He cannot juggle the concept that this woman saved my life, and I owe her, and possibly Russia to a large extension but Italy is my home- I have people who love me there. Of course, we the outsider can say this so easily with an omniscient viewpoint. We don’t know what the hell war does to people, and how it can not only kill people but put minds asunder.
Immigration and the life before and after coming to a new world- don’t always balance equally in the mind as well. In fact in an Abnormal Psychology textbook I read that schizophrenia happens a lot new immigrants. I cannot remember exactly why, but perhaps this has a lot to do with the balance to different identities and all that they encompass.
Another thing about both movies is that they show rather certain mundane scenes that more formalistic (or shall we say showy) films might not show. In other words, both have scenes which seem to go on and on, and don’t always show the prettiest of things ( Eilis suffering food poisoning) and the camera panning on Antonio’s Russian home.. It’s mundane and at times not cute.
Honesty we can All Relate to
At times we might think that we have nothing in common with this movie because we are not an immigrant in the 1950s coming to Brooklyn. But we are all going through some sort of growth where we have to go through the not pretty stages of something. But in the end we blossom from it. This film does an excellent job of not being shy of exposing the drudge that can accompany new experiences and growth.
If you want to vicariously live through someone else’s experience, and yet relate it back to your experience of living, then this is the film for you.
Oh one more thing…
Another fun tidbit of this film is that it showcases… Jessica Pare!!!! This is the actress who portrayed Megan Draper in Mad Men. If you are like me and you go and stalk movies (and TV shows) that show former Mad Men cast members- then that just should be all the reason you need to go see this film!
But Mad Men cast spotting aside, truly: Go see this film.
