I always have unceasing questions about life or my existence
that pushes me to think of the term 'realist'. When all my unstoppable questions meet an
immovable personal tragedy, I gradually become the skeptic of higher range. A
healthy amount of skepticism is necessary to survive in this world, but the
skepticism I am talking about gives a tsunami of doubtful feelings, which
eventually has the danger of making me retreat into a cocoon. But, I often
encounter people who are the precise opposite of me; people who wade through
life carrying abundant nutrients for soul: hope and self-respect. Sometimes
they too devolve into worst forms of narcissism and make me think that they are
not much of a realist. However, those people help me reinstate hope, when
coping with life’s quiet emptiness. I don’t know if I am right, but I now think
that in life there are no perfect happy beginnings or endings. A luminous light
shines through, when grasping in the dark to untangle from life’s
complications. We may never find a solution for those complications, but the
vital thing is to be ready to face that light; to cherish it in our memory for
it may provide a path through this darkness. John Crowley’s “Brooklyn” (2015)
might be referenced as a triangle love story of a simple, beautiful Irish girl.
But, that’s not the right description. “Brooklyn” is about a person, learning
to treasure that ‘light’ while confronting a life of hardships and scorching
dilemma. She not only allows the hopeful luminescence to slip through her life’s
complications, but elegantly shares it with a soulmate.
Based on Colm Toibin’s novel, “Brooklyn” was adapted to
screen by another novelist Nick Hornby. On the outset, this story has
everything to veer into a formulaic territory: an impoverished town during
World War II; the journey of an immigrant; the search for American dream;
predictable romances; death of a loved one and so on. But, the emotionally
attuned sense of direction & writing plus the surefooted lead performance
from Saoirse Ronan makes it one of the most emotionally affecting movies of
recent times. “Brooklyn” is pretty much a fairy tale in its depiction of
geography and immigrant experience, although through the Irish girl’s emotional
journey, we are able to grasp intimate epiphanies which could be interrelated
with our own existence. The movie begins on a bleak early morning, where our
heroine Eilis Lacey (Saoirse Ronan) is frowned upon in God’s abode, and ends on
a street pavement in one fine morning, where Eilis is all ready to receive and
give love.
Eilis has grown up in hard times of World War II in an
impoverished province Enniscorthy, situated in the south-east of Ireland.
Although, it is early 50’s, the economical depression of the nation keeps
everyone on the edge. Eilis is underemployed at a local bakery store, owned by
a stinging crone Miss Kelly (Brid Brennan). Eilis lives with her widowed mother
and caring elder sister Rose (Fiona Glascott), who works in a book-keeping
office. Although Rose is bogged down by familial and economical pressures, she
wants her sister to live the dream. With the help of local Parish, Rose gets
sponsorship for Eilis to move to Brooklyn. She stays at a Catholic boarding
house, run by well-meaning matron Ms. Kehoe (Julie Waters), and occupied by
clucking, but amiable young girls. Eilis finds a job attending customers at
supermarket store ‘Bertocci’s’. However, a bout of homesickness hits her as she
is unable to intermingle freely with the happy go lucky persons of this big
city. The letter from sister makes Eilis to shut herself from human contact.
Father Flood (Jim Broadbent), who had placed Eilis in the boarding house and
found the job tries to reinstate some kind of normalcy and hope in her life.
Father Flood offers comforting words about homesickness: “It
will make you feel wretched, and then it will move onto somebody else”. Father
pays tuition for Eilis to learn book-keeping to envision a career that isn’t
pertained to departmental store. Soon, Eilis also finds a person who brightens
her mood. She meets a nice, and little clumsy Italian plumber Tony Fiorello (Emory Cohen) at a dance hall. He doesn’t sweep her off her feat because they both are
level-headed in contemplating the possibility of romance. There’s an air of
authenticity to the way they speak to each other that we yearn for them to fall
in love. Eilis is unsure whether she loves Tony, although she appreciates his
companionship. But, love transforms her or may be the transformation makes
Eilis to perceive what love is. She even begins to assert herself as a sexual
being. Nevertheless, a tragedy occurs which demands the girl to make one
heart-wrenching decision after another. The problems and the outcomes might
seem simple & maudlin but there’s a profundity here that makes each nuanced
expressions an arrow, piercing our heart.
Spoilers Ahead
Much of the joy in experiencing “Brooklyn” lies on how much
we see ourselves in the emotional trajectory of Eilis Lacey. You can call her
as a dull girl with little imagination to be a protagonist. But, I think she is
dull and not perfect like every one of us. Although I and the character of
Eilis are separated by gender, geography, time, and reality, I am able to sense
and understand her inner anguish & dilemmas. The beauty of Nick Hornby’s
script (and may be Toibin’s novel too) is making us feel that it could be our
own life story. We all might have felt deluge of homesickness, promising love,
the yearning to belong to a place, and the conflict between making a selfish
and sacrificial decision. A lot of viewers might have stopped feeling for Eilis
when she kind of falls for Jim Farell (Domhnall Gleeson). There is a hesitance
within Eilis when she falls for Tony, but no so much when she laughs with Jim.
It makes us doubt her selfishness (although it is understandable). If you see
Eilis’ story as a weightless object floating through space, then Hornby,
Crowley and Ronan work together to imbue a gravitational pull and depth to this
object. All you had to do is let yourself pulled in by the story and patiently
peel back its layers to understand about love and life. While analyzing Eilis’
alleged hesitance in NY chapter when Tony proposes love, we need to realize
that she is a miserable, homesick girl, who never had the taken big life
decisions. Eilis arrives at Brooklyn because Rose makes her believe that a
better life awaits her; she remains as a passive character when talking with
lady on the boat and in the boarding house.
Eilis never sees the
subtle control and manipulation, others place upon her. Of course, love is a
subtle form of manipulation, which can positively affect us. It is love that shows
her path of hope to break free from passiveness and to understand the nether
side of manipulation and control placed on her life. When she comes back to
Ireland, Eilis’mother basically shoehorns her to fill in Rose’s place. The
promise she had made for love allows ascertaining this subtle manipulation.
However, Eilis likes the attention she gets on her homeland. Among the inexperienced peers, she attains uniqueness. She can actively see through the affectionate
gestures of Jim. But, it isn’t about Eilis choosing Tony or Jim; it is about
her choosing the right kind of life she wants. If Eilis in the ‘Brooklyn’ part
of story shown to withhold a clear perception of love, then the whole of
‘Irish’ act would become obsolete. It is the uncertainty about choosing the
right love and life that lends us empathy in perceiving Eilis. The active, free
choice she makes at the end might come off as preordained, happy ending in some
other romantic movie, but here it is genuine and even tear-jerking. May be
Eilis should have been honest to Jim or at least with her wrecked mother. But,
then how many of us are always honest in our youthful life, while waltzing
through landmine of inner conflicts? In movies, love is thought to be a proven
scientific theory. It’s not a set of formulas which says ‘If you do all this,
you will get this result’. The success of love or life is based on the series
of difficult choices & sacrifices, one has to make freely from deep inside
once heart. “Brooklyn”, within its fairy-tale atmosphere and ideas,
realistically broods upon love that survives on top of societal expectations
and conventions.
There’s a wonderful interpretation made in an article,
published in ‘screenprism.com’ which alluded that the entire love story and its
conflicts is a metaphor for ‘immigrant experience’ ('How the love story in "Brooklyn" a metaphor for immigrant experience'). The underlying theme in
Eilis’ inner conflict is choosing between love in home and away from home. This
theme is crisply explained by the author of article. The film also touches upon
humans’ desire to belong to a place. When we gain as much as wisdom and worldly
experience as possible away from home and then return back, the place we called
‘home’ will look different. We might gain solace and respect, but the old life
at home becomes an elusive thing. When Eilis walks on the beach with Jim, she
says "I wish it had been like this before I went. Before Rose died”. It’s the
paradox every modern individual, going away from home in search of a job faces.
All we need learn is how kindness and love could make turn any place into home.
That’s another beautiful thing about the
film; it isn’t designed to be an one kind of story. The absence of moralizing
approach or absence from spewing out a prescribed path for success or happiness
makes us feel at home.
Socioeconomic & sociopolitical conditions of Brooklyn or
Ireland are sensibly avoided because this is very much a personal story. The US
war in Korea is never mentioned and economic depression plus the class-based
oppression in Ireland are only mentioned in passing. Brooding over those topics
would have only added extra melodrama, and no way place a role or adds depth to
Eilis’ decisions. Director Crowley and cinematographer Yves Belanger draw upon
an impressive & deeply nostalgic 50’s settings. Of all their lyrical
frames, my most favorite one is the final visuals when Eilis stands under warm
sunlight, waiting for Tony. It is not just an image that provides relief for
the movie viewers; it’s an image that reassures us about true love; it’s an
image thriving with life. As Eilias, Saoirse Ronan has given her best
performance yet. The close-ups of her face resembles that of a renaissance era
painting, allowing us to catch even the smallest of expressions passing through
the face. Emory Cohen is also splendid as Tony, whose evocation of’ James Dean’
kind tenderness & vulnerability is a marvel to behold.
Trailer
“Brooklyn” (111 minutes) is an amazingly restrained and
profound personal story that feels congruent to our times and thought process. It
is the kind of film, where a simple advice in a dance class (“Secret is to as
though you know what you’re doing”) while calmly contemplated could very well
seem like a vital life lesson.
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