Brooklyn Movie Review

Brooklyn (2015)

Rent Brooklyn on Amazon Video (paid link) // Buy the book (paid link) 
Written by: Nick Hornby (screenplay), Colm Tóibín (novel)
Directed by: John Crowley
Starring: Saoirse Ronan, Emory Cohen, Domhnall Gleeson
Rated: PG-13
Watch the trailer

Plot
An Irish immigrant girl has to decide whether home is Brooklyn or Ireland.

Verdict
Brooklyn has very good writing with more than a few scenes that will cause you to laugh with the characters. It's more than just a romance, though it does include those elements. What do you do when your dreams come true but you've already moved on?
Watch It.

Review
This is a period piece with Eilis (Saoirise Ronan) sailing to America for a better life. She's completely ignorant in a new country, she doesn't fit in, and she's separated from everything she's ever known. The first half of the movie is her triumph in overcoming these obstacles and finding a boyfriend, Tony.

The scenes of her and her roommates eating dinner with the landlady capture something real. You can't help but laugh with them. It capture so many emotions from silly to jealousy very well.

When Eilis returns to Ireland she stumbles into a job and meets a guy. This confirms Tony's fears that if she returns home, she won't come back. She wants to return home but friends, family, and circumstance trap her. She now has everything she wanted in Ireland, things she believed she wouldn't have gotten if she had stayed.

Brooklyn - Great writing and story. Do you look to the past or future?

The writing is strengthened by its restraint. Many movies would make the conflict the choice between two men she cares about, but the choice here is what's home. It's completely emotional. Eilis is back home with everything she ever wanted, but she is leaving behind the life she created in Brooklyn. She is leaving behind a man she committed to and who is devoted to her.

Many movies would make her divided emotions more overt and have her fully cheat on her boyfriend. She doesn't need to do that because it's not the point. Home is where the heart is, but Eilis is split. While she was happy in Brooklyn, she's fulfilled a dream upon which she had given up.

This is a less sappy and smarter version of The Notebook (2004). Instead of love and practicality conflicting, with the main character having to decide between two men, Eilis's predicament is internal. Where does she want to live?