‘Brooklyn’ has great performances, but offers little
Saorise Ronan is Ellis Lacey. Ellis has no prospects in her native Ireland, and encouraged by her caretaking sister, she leaves her widowed mother and immigrates to the U.S. for a fresh start. It’s set in the 1950s, and no single woman of her status lives alone so Ellis ends up in a boarding house with other, beautiful women and their crusty old landlady, played wonderfully by Julie Walters.
Ultimately, Ellis connects with her work supervisors and falls in love with a plumber. Tragedy causes Ellis to quickly make life decisions and decide which continent holds her future.
That sounds like a synopsis a studio would write and not all that exciting or that interesting. And it isn’t. Brooklyn has excellent performances — especially from Ronan (The Grand Budapest Hotel) and Walters — and has terrific comedy sequences at Walter’s character’s boarding house dinner table.
Other than that, it doesn’t offer much.
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Brooklyn
Director: John Crowley
Stars: Saorise Ronan, Julie Walters, Jim Broadbent, Domhnall Gleeson, Emergy Cohen
Mr. Movie rating: 2 1/2 stars
It’s rated PG-13 for mature themes. It’s playing at the Carmike 12.
5 stars to 4 1/2 stars: Must see on the big screen.
4 stars to 3 1/2 stars: Good film, see it if it’s your type of movie.
3 stars to 2 1/2 stars: Wait until it comes out on DVD.
2 stars to 1 star: Don’t bother.
0 stars: Speaks for itself.
This story was originally published November 25, 2015 at 12:34 PM with the headline "‘Brooklyn’ has great performances, but offers little."