BROOKLYN

Tratto dall’omonimo romanzo dello scrittore irlandese Colm Toibin, Brooklyn, diretto da John Crowley, anch’esso irlandese, arriva nelle sale italiane il 17 marzo. Candidato a tre premi Oscar, miglior film, migliore attrice protagonista (Saoirse Ronan), e miglior sceneggiatura originale, che non è riuscito a conquistare, il film racconta la storia di Eilis, una ragazza irlandese che vive con la madre e la sorella e non riesce a trovare lavoro nella povera Irlanda degli anni ’50. Così, con l’aiuto di un prete che vive a Brooklyn, si imbarca su una nave alla volta di New York. La ragazza è spaesata, intimorita e presto sentirà la nostalgia di casa. Arrivata nella terra promessa, si trasferisce a Brooklyn dove va a vivere in un pensionato per signorine, diretto da un’arcigna zitella, e a lavorare in un grande magazzino. All'apparenza sembrerebbe tutto perfetto ma Eilis non riesce ad adattarsi in questo nuovo mondo che le

sta dando una serie di opportunità più che positive. La ragazza è spaventata, si sente un pesce fuor d’acqua e non riesce ad apprezzare la sua nuova vita fino a quando conosce Tony, un idraulico italiano. Poco a poco i due ragazzi si innamorano e di colpo la percezione del mondo, delle cose, della vita cambia per Eilis. Questa rivoluzione interiore e questa nuova sicurezza la porta ad essere diversa anche nel modo di vestire, di rapportarsi agli altri, di affrontare la vita. Purtroppo la notizia dell’improvvisa morte della sorella la obbliga a tornare a casa. Lì, armata di un nuovo modo di vedere il mondo, si trova spesso non a suo agio ma scopre anche valori che aveva dimenticato. A questo punto Eilis è tormentata e non sa cosa fare della sua vita: ritornare a New York e lasciare per sempre la sua terra, sua madre, i luoghi dell'infanzia,

o rimanere in Irlanda e affrontare la nuova vita a casa con occhi diversi?

Il film, a mio giudizio sopravvalutato, racconta una storia intima ma di grandi visioni. Una ragazza armata esclusivamente della propria volontà affronta da sola un oceano perché a casa non trovava lavoro. Questa figura esile, vestita di abitini semplici e antiquati, questa ragazza genuina e timida, affronta qualcosa più grande di lei e ne esce vincitrice qualunque sia poi la sua scelta finale.
Il film, che sulla carta sembra di grande impatto, non riesce a creare quella tensione emotiva che ci si aspetterebbe e la storia d’amore tra Eilis e Tony rischia di sembrare una soap. Un po’ troppi i luoghi comuni come per esempio su come mangiano gli spaghetti gli italiani. Belle le ambientazioni e la differenza che si percepisce tra Brooklyn, cioè il nuovo mondo pieno di colori, di cose, di persone, di novità che rappresentano

il futuro, e il paese natio irlandese grigio, semivuoto, triste e pieno di preconcetti che esprime il vecchio mondo.

SAOIRSE RONAN SHINES, BUT RELATIVE NEWCOMER EMORY COHEN IS THE TRUE BREAKOUT IN THIS TALE OF A YOUNG WOMAN TORN BETWEEN TWO MEN ON OPPOSITE SIDES OF THE ATLANTIC.

A 1950s American immigrant story told as if it took place a half-century earlier, “Brooklyn” unfolds almost like a prim Victorian novel, presenting a young Irish woman, nobly brought to life by Saoirse Ronan, torn between two lovers — one a polite, red-headed chap from her hometown, the other a brash Italian-American who falls for her during her new life abroad — where her big decision has as much to do with choosing between countries as courters. Beautifully written, but still a bit flat in its transition to the screen, this sensitive adaptation of Colm Toibin’s bestseller, acquired by Fox Seachlight at Sundance, should assimilate nicely with more mainstream fare.

As a nation of immigrants, the United States represents a roiling tapestry of

expat experiences, in which each family traces its roots back to whichever dauntless ancestors crossed the ocean to pursue a better life for themselves. The movies abound with such genealogical histories, from last year’s deeply-felt “The Immigrant” to the epic backstory depicted in “The Godfather: Part II,” and yet the vast majority seem to cluster around entire families who made the voyage together. Less common are the solo voyages, and rarer still are those in which a 20-ish lass was compelled to make the trip alone — which is precisely the narrative director John Crowley offers here.

A robust romantic drama, rich in history and full of emotion, “Brooklyn” fills a niche in which the studios once specialized, using a well-read and respected novel as the grounds for a tenderly observed tearjerker. With a classical, literate script from Nick Hornby unfussily interpreted by Crowley (a director who came up through theater,

stepping aside every few years to mount such a morally intricate drama onscreen, the two most successful being “Boy A” and “Intermission”), the film satisfies the reason audiences of a certain age go to the movies in the first place: namely, to feel something.

In a sense, a project like this calls back to what it imagines as a cornier, less cynical era, which is does simply by ignoring the rampant cynicism of the time — the tail end of America’s second Red Scare and smack-dab in the middle of the Korean War, bearing no trace of either. Buoyed along by a beautiful Michael Brook score, “Brooklyn” is just the sort of escapist entertainment its own characters might have chosen had they paid their 65 cents for a night at the cinema way back in 1952, the year the film opens, when the infectiously nostalgic “Singin’ in the Rain” and the

garishly square “The Greatest Show on Earth” vied for Oscars, centering on a heart torn between two equally equally respectable options. Naturally, the balance is tipped in America’s favor, thanks to a star-making performance from relative newcomer Emory Cohen (of “Place Beyond the Pines”), though the movie offers a formidable alternative in Domhnall Gleeson, representing all Ireland has to offer.

Upon first encounter, Ronan’s soft-spoken Eilis Lacey doesn’t seem the type courageous enough to weather the transition to American life alone. If anything, it’s her older sister Rose who comes across as dynamic enough to brave that trip. But between the quietly powerful performance Ronan gives here and the actress’ other low-key starring role at this year’s Sundance, in the psychological drama “Stockholm, Pennsylvania,” the former child star seems to have perfected an understated technique as emotionally devastating to audiences as icebergs are to transatlantic ocean liners: On the surface, she

may look doll-like, innocent and somewhat difficult to read, and yet we understand through the most minute touches — a subtle crinkle around her eyes or a flinch in her smile — the sheer depth of turmoil her characters must be going through underneath.

In Ireland, where we meet Eilis, she’s a mousy wallflower working a couple days a week in the local grocery for a pernicious old crone (Brid Brennan). Unable to earn enough money, Eilis reluctantly agrees to leave her family and take the ship to New York, a naive fledgling forced out of the nest and into a world for which she’s not ready. Despite the oversight of a benevolent Irish priest (Jim Broadbent), her hilariously acerbic landlady Ma Kehoe (Julie Walters, the best thing in an all-around stellar ensemble) and the stern, yet sympathetic floor manager (“Mad Men’s” Jessica Pare) at the Brooklyn department store where she

finds employment, Eilis is crushed by loneliness. She spends her days sobbing quietly to herself, a dull moth among the eager butterflies with whom she shares boarding-house meals. Meanwhile, immersed in her insular Brooklyn world (shot mostly in Montreal), Manhattan seems as far away as it did back when she was living in Ireland (which lends itself far better to frozen-in-time exteriors).

By contrast with Horatio Alger’s ambition-driven male heroes, Eilis’ passive attitude initially makes her a difficult character to identify with. At her mopey low, she’s no more exciting than a sack of wet flour, but that only serves to make her transformation all the more vibrant. One night, asked to escort a new tenant to the church dance, Eilis meets Tony (Cohen), a working-class plumber with a thing for Irish girls. He’s the kind of guy Marlon Brando managed to capture the year prior in “A Streetcar Named Desire,”

and though the role lacks Tennessee Williams’ complexity, Cohen seems no less committed in his Method-like intensity than Brando did. Tony may be a tough Italian, but he’s fallen head-over-heels for Eilis, waiting for her outside her accounting-school night classes and putting everything on the line the first time he professes his love, or the moment he takes her to Long Island to survey what could be their future home.

Tony turns things around for Eilis, filling the void left by her family back in Ireland — at least, until a tragic twist forces her to return. The couple marry quietly at City Hall before Eilis boards the ship for “home,” which complicates the vastly changed situation she discovers upon her return: Now, armed with an accounting certificate, she can easily find work. And newly single Jim Farrell (Gleeson), one of those dreaded rugby-club guys she couldn’t abide before, turns out

to be a decent fella, noticing in her an aspect of her personality that Tony doesn’t see.

Though she’d intended the trip to be short, Eilis failed to anticipate the sheer pull that Ireland would have over her. In so many ways, life would be immeasurably easier if she just stayed here among her old friends and surviving family, whereas adapting to the American way suddenly seems like such an effort — though this tame drama feels curiously lacking in period context and detail, perhaps the greatest shortcoming in the modestly budgeted, inelegantly lensed period pic.

And while Hornby’s script (which takes a broader approach here than he did with “An Education”) uses the competing suitors to stand in for her divided allegiances, any young person who’s gone off to college away from home can relate to her dilemma. Eilis’ conflict couldn’t be more clear than in the fact she can’t bring

herself to return Tony’s letters, which pile up in a drawer beside her bed. Readers of the book know how “Brooklyn” turns out, though Hornby adds a beautifully written coda that conveys just how much Eilis has changed over the course of her story and how her choice is as much about the idea of home as it has to do with her heart.