By Teri Bayus ~
I’ve got a new beloved cry-fest, “Brooklyn.” Nick Hornby is one of my favorite novelists and screenwriters. He brings a precise, tangible, element to his work showcasing fragility and humor better than most.
This is a simple story, but a love story that lead to everyone in my row sobbing (even the big old men). The storyline is unpretentious: girl travels abroad, boy meets girl, they fall in love, girl leaves, it gets complicated, and then it is resolved.
The plot: a small town’s young Irish woman, Eilis Lacey (played by Saoirse Ronan), moves to New York, courtesy of a contact her sister Rose made in the city. Upon first arriving in the early 1950s, Eilis is overwhelmed by homesickness.
Just as things ostensibly can’t get worse, Eilis meets Tony (Emory Cohen), a young Italian plumber who seeks to court her.
Brooklyn plays out with an understated approach, it’s genuine, from the heart and honest. It’s not flashy with performances, driven by an antagonist or even full of jump cuts that race to the resolution.
Instead, it can simply be described as a deeply poignant journey that, much like all the great tales, takes us on an emotional rollercoaster.
Set design, costume design and cinematography paint an astonishing picture of both Ireland and America in the 1950s, which is an incredible feat to achieve. The crew gives it an authenticity and an almost timeless appeal and the direction is also top notch.
Director, John Crowley, stylishly puts the characters in perspective to the audience, giving us an insight into their emotional states, without heavy-handed dialogue. This is done through character close-ups that are only as effective as the actor in front of the camera and thankfully, the performances uplift this style of direction.
Hornby’s adaptation of a Colm Tóibín novel is incredible. The dialogue adds another layer of sincerity to this motion picture.
Brooklyn is a type of film that doesn’t come around very often but when it does, it deserves to be cherished. I personally valued every second, and with a performance as wonderful as Ronan’s, it’s hard not to be swept away on an emotional journey. Bring some tissues.
Teri Bayus can be seen on her culinary TV show, “Taste Buds,” online at www.centralcoastnow.tv or on Charter Cable Ch. 10. Her novel, “Consumed,” is an erotic culinary tale, and available on Amazon.com and ITunes. Dinner and a Movie is a regular feature of Tolosa Press.
