Brooklyn
life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
Early last month as Saoirse Ronan walked down the Red Carpet at the Oscars for the third time, I was reminded of her previous appearance at the Academy Awards in 2016. That year, her role in the 2015 film Brooklyn, itself a Best Picture nominee, put her in contention for the Academy Award for Best Actress. Set in the early 1950s, the movie was thematically quite different from its co-nominees that year.
The movie begins in Enniscorthy( a small town in Ireland ) where Eilis( played by Saoirse Ronan ) lives with her mother, and her sister Rose. The subdued economic reality of Ireland means that Eilis can’t find work or look forward to a promising future in her town. So, her sister, a bookkeeper at a local business, makes arrangements for Eilis to go to America. In America, she stays at a boarding house in Brooklyn while working at a large department store. The conversations that the young women in the boarding house, and the landlady Ma Kehoe have at the dinner table are not only amusing, but also help the viewer get a sense of the time the movie is set in. She takes night classes at the local college to learn bookkeeping. One weekend, she meets Tony Fiorello at an Irish Dance. The two eventually fall for each other.
On the surface the story seems like a simple drama but a great screenplay helps it transform into an amazing movie on screen. Yes, there is romance in this film but that is not all this film is about. It is the story of the most important decision that Eilis has to make, a decision that would change her life forever. She leaves for America hesitantly and ends up building a great life there, one that holds a lot of promise. But, the sudden death of her sister Rose brings her back to Ireland. And this time around things back home have changed. Enniscorthy now lures her with the promise of a pleasant life in the comfort of the familiar.
The film does a great job of showing all of this on screen. Similar scenes set in Brooklyn and Ireland show this contrast. The quite rural beach in Ireland that Eilis and Jim Farrell visit with their friends compared to Brighton Beach where Tony takes Eilis. The conversations that Jim and Eilis have at the club restaurant compared to the ones Tony and Eilis have at the diner back in Brooklyn. The scenes where both Jim and Tony takes Eilis to meet their respective parents. These are just a few examples that show how the movie sets up two distinct futures for Eilis to choose from.
On one hand in Ireland Jim Farrell offers her a pleasant life in the town she grew up in. She can take up her sister’s old job. He’ll eventually take over over the family pub and after getting married they would move into the home that he would inherit from his parents. Staying in Enniscorthy also means staying close to her mother and her childhood friends. Across the Atlantic, a life with Tony promises something completely different, a new life away from the past. One thats her own and one that she has longed for. Choosing Tony means that they get to build a new home where they raise a family. She gets to take a job and have a future of her own.
The movie ends with her returning to America with a voiceover that neatly ties up the movie.
“…… and then you’ll catch yourself thinking about something or someone who has no connection with the past. Someone who’s only yours, and you’ll realise that this is where your life is. “
