Adi’s TL;DR Finally a romance makes it to Oscar nominations!
Sahil’s TL;DR If you can only watch one Brooklyn or The Big Short, choose the latter.
Brooklyn is beautiful and artistic. The place and the movie. For most part, Brooklyn is a light hearted, non-controversial story of a young Irish woman who moves to New York for a better life. Sounds familiar, right? So many of us have moved countries to make another home. The fear, the anticipation, the excitement, the homesickness, the novelty, the adjustment and ultimately the relief of belonging somewhere – it’s a journey ripe with emotions and this is the story of Brooklyn. In the current climate of immigrant crisis in the world, Brooklyn takes you to a place far removed from reality, a world not marred by politics or profiteering.
Here’s some dope on Brooklyn. Directed by John Crowley and screenplay by Nick Hornby, Brooklyn is another Oscar nominee based on a novel by Colm Toibin. Guess books to movies is a formula that never goes out of fashion! A historical period drama, the film stars Saoirse Ronan, Emory Cohen and Domhnall Gleeson in major roles, along with an eclectic cast of characters that bring out the charm and nuances of both the countries. And can we just say what a year it’s been for Domnhall Gleeson. He (well really his agent) surely knows how to pick the right projects to be in! He’s in four Academy nominated films this year – Ex-Machina, Star Wars, Brooklyn and The Revenant and has managed to snag zero nominations for himself! If that’s not hard luck, we don’t know what is! Brooklyn has three Academy nominations including ones for Best Actress (Saoirse Ronan) and surprise surprise, Best Picture. Guess the happy ending to an immigrant’s story resonated with the Oscar voters.
Brooklyn is a coming of age story that shows the protagonist Eilis, come into her own. It’s a bildungsroman, one that charts Eilis’s journey from a young adult to a woman who’s independent, well at least in context of that time. The Eilis we meet at the beginning of the film and the one we see at the end are different in so many ways. She‘s glamorous, confident, decisive, educated, career oriented and in love! The subdued, unsure girl transforms into a woman who knows her mind and can make choices independent of her past and not petrified of her future. And none of this could have happened had it not been for one person. Eilis’s elder sister Rose (Fiona Glascott) has been a parent, a sibling and a friend to Eilis. She knows that Eilis would never be able to get out of the rut of her life in Ireland, if she didn’t go out and see the world for herself and so arranges for her move to America. There’s a stark contrast between the lives Eilis and Rose lead. From their rooms to their wardrobes, Eilis’s is full of hope and light, while Rose’s is dull and gray. Rose’s character is tragic and you can’t help but feel a pang of sadness when you think of what could’ve been, if only she had someone looking out for her, like she did for Eilis.
Representation of different immigrant groups as they rebuild home away from home is a recurring theme in Brooklyn. New York is something of a melting pot, where people from all over the world come to make a future and start rebuilding little pockets of where they came from with people from the same cultural/racial background. It’s a given that an Irish girl, would stay in a house for Irish women, run by an Irish lady, go to an Irish church, visit the Irish weekly dance to meet Irish ‘fellas’ and serve the Irish poor and homeless as part of church service. We’re creatures of habit, of familiarity and cultural stereotypes and the film really brings this out. The interesting bit is the subtle ways in which everything changes for Eilis, despite being surrounded by familiar people. At the boarding house she meets other young Irish women who are different in the way they dress, act, talk and she feels like she does not belong. The Irish in New York are nothing like the Irish in Ireland and she struggles to reconcile the two, while gradually adapting the new ways. We see a change in her wardrobe, her style, her personality as she begins to enjoy the sense of freedom and independence and develop relationships with the people she lives and works with.
The most entertaining parts in the film are the conversations at meal times. The dinner table conversations at Eilis’s boarding house have an interesting mix of flavors, portraying women in New York in the 1950’s. The gendered nature of those conversations make them hilarious and meaningful at the same time. It’s like viewing a slice of a bygone era with it’s old world charm and quirkiness. The boarding house has four other women including the matron-like landlady Madge Kehoe (Julie Walters), who feels it’s her moral responsibility to keep a check on these girls, so they don’t get too ‘giddy’, which according to her is ‘the eighth sin’! Mrs. Kehoe stands for societal notions of right and wrong, acceptable or not, but is not blinded by one school of thought. She’s capable of letting go her guard for a good laugh and be stern in her belief that the lord’s name must not be taken in vain, at the same time. From makeup tips to boyfriend stories to swimsuit discussions – the range of these conversations goes far and wide, of course always operating within the realm of ‘womanly’ topics.
You may be wondering where the romance fits in with all of this. Well how would a woman’s coming of age story ever be complete without a man or men, especially in the 1950s! So there are two men in Eilis’s world. Towards the beginning of the film, we see Eilis’s lack of interest in men of southern Ireland, who are all the same in her opinion. But that doesn’t mean that marriage ain’t for her. Marriage is a given in this world, it ain’t an option. And going to the weekly community dances is the best way to meet ‘fellas’. This is where Eilis meets Tony, a young Italian man who works as a plumber and is really ‘into’ Irish girls! With Tony, Eilis feels more in control of the situation and his honesty about his background, sets a tone of transparency in their relationship. This gives Eilis a chance to be more vocal about her thoughts, ideas and dreams, something we haven’t heard from her yet. Love becomes the light of her life and in Tony she sees the chance of a future brighter than ever before. The scene where Tony introduces Eilis to his family is so incredibly well done. Eilis is not really like them. When Tony’s mother asks her how she learnt to eat spaghetti like that? Eilis is honest to say that she took a class with her friends to learn the right way to do this. This is the Eilis we are charmed by. Honest, unassuming, down to earth and endearing.
But as we all know, when things are going too well in a film, something bad is just round the corner and Brooklyn doesn’t disappoint. In a tragic turn of events, Eilis is drawn into her past, where she has to travel back to Ireland to be with her mother and mourn Rose’s demise. Rose was Eilis’s support system and this would have broken her spirit had it not been for Tony’s love and presence. Tony stands by her and helps her grieve, but as the moment of her impending journey inches closer, his insecurities and fears start creeping in. He is scared of what might happen when Eilis goes to Ireland. The looming question of the uncertainty of her return petrifies him and he looks at marriage as an insurance for their relationship. In a moment, that’s not very well thought out by Eilis and Tony or even Crowley and Hornby, they get married without telling a soul. This episode’s a little jarring, a little cliched, since their relationship wasn’t built on stereotypes for most part and you start wondering the why’s of it. Is love not enough is a question you can’t help but ponder over.
When Eilis reaches Ireland she is sucked right back into that world, but now she feels accomplished. She is suddenly an object of desire, the center of attention in this small town. She’s in a position of power, as she is the one who’s been outside and seen the ‘real’ world. She has her own style now, her own thoughts and ideas and is not at anyone’s mercy. From a place where nothing ever happens, now everything seems to be falling in place for Eilis. She’s getting to work at a real office, she has a suitor in line who everyone thinks of as a ‘good catch’ and she has a life – the kind of life she had in New York, where things happened. And for a bit, she forgets what and who she‘s left behind. This is suddenly her idea of an idyll. But no idyll lasts. And hers is broken in one moment by Ms. Kelly who knows about Eilis’s secret marriage and threatens to tell. In this instance, she’s reminded of why she left Ireland in the first place. The small town mentality of being nosy and the lack of privacy, where people are not just happy for each other’s success and Eilis feels claustrophobic. In this moment, she knows Brooklyn is now home and that’s where she belongs.
Here’s the ‘one stand out moment’ for each of us. Emory Cohen as Tony is pretty much the sunlight in Brooklyn, even more than Eilis, TBH. The scenes at the beginning of their courtship are endearing and such an overload of cuteness. In one scene, Tony is waiting for Eilis outside her night school and Eilis is surprised and delighted to see him. Just when she is taking the final few steps towards him, Tony breaks into an explanation he’s clearly rehearsed, ‘All I want to do is travel home with you. No drink, no food, no nothing. I know you have to study, and get some sleep. I’ll take you to your house and then say goodnight. Otherwise it’s too long to wait.’ Now how do you say no to Emory Cohen saying that with all the earnestness of the world! And Eilis can’t either 🙂 Look out for Emory Cohen, his Tony is sure to impress many casting directors and we’re excited to see a lot more of him! And when you do, remember you first heard it here 😛
Eilis travels to America twice in the film, once as an amateur taking advice from a more experienced Irish woman who’s clearly done this before and once at the end when the roles switch and she finds herself giving advice to a young, scared girl making her first trip. It’s a sense of life coming full circle and one of the most heartwarming bits of an overall sweet film. A fair bit of Brooklyn’s story feels convenient and it’s almost like the narrative takes the path it chooses, without necessarily being true to one ideology or thought process. There are disconnects in the plot where you’re left wondering why now and not earlier. In that sense the film remains simplistic and perhaps that was the intent. It manages to find a happy resolution to Eilis’s life, without much heartache or strife, both things you expect to see. Brooklyn’s a well made, beautifully soothing, soft spoken, lullaby of a film that you won’t necessarily remember for long, but one that was an enjoyable viewing experience while it lasted. Its story from an independent entry at Sundance to the Academy nominations is inspiring for all independent artists and filmmakers. And hopefully we’ll see many gems of Sundance make their way to more mainstream cinema lover’s screens.
Until next time, keep the popcorn tub handy!
Adi & Sahil
@ThePopcornWaltz
