Last evening I went to see the new Irish movie - Brooklyn. It is based on Colm Tóibín's novel of the same name and tells the story of a young woman emigrating to America and returning home for a short time following the death of her sister. It is set in Enniscorthy, Co Wexford, in 1952. It struck me on hearing about the story that it could have been about my mother Phil who was just 18 in 1952. Later in the same decade all her family emigrated to Canada - thankfully she stayed behind.
The lead role is played by Saoirse Ronan in what the Berkshire Eagle said was a role "tailor-made" for her. I found the story line to be very slow - all I was interested in was whether she would go back to Brooklyn after being home or not. There's plenty of tears from Ronan - which she is good at doing if you like that sort of thing. Emory Cohen is excellent as her American boyfriend, but I thought that Domhnall Gleeson as her Irish equivalent was desperately wooden in his performance. The picture painted of 1950s Ireland is not a good one - I'm glad it was October 1959 when I was born so that I did not have to live through very much of this depressing decade.
Judge for yourself, but I was bored for most of this movie.
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