In America

Rating:
Summary: ultimately a beautiful and heartfelt work
Review: Just saw this film for the second time at the theater, and the metaphor that comes to mind is that of peeling an onion. The first time I saw the film, the skin of the onion was removed. After the first half of the film it started sinking in that this was no mere string of episodes about Irish immigrants in New York City. It was clear from the first that there was good acting, and I expected only one of those European-style "slice of life" films, but I was delighted that the story actually built up a direction and a momentum and built to a truly impressive conclusion. Shakily photographed opening scenes turned out to be a deliberate and very appropriate work of craftsmanship linked into the heart of the film. The weirdly filmed sensual bedroom scene turned out NOT to have just been tossed in for its own sake, but rather was essesntial to set up symbols for the second half of the film. Not every note of the film rings true, but in the second half, once the characters are established, we find elements of mysticism and heartbreak mixed with textures of wonder and grit. I knew I had to go back and peel away another layer. Upon a second viewing, the spiritual/religious references were revealed more clearly, and I was convinced that my emotional response had been no mere fluke of mood or of the actors alone, but that this is actually a work of art, carefully set up with multiple layers and levels of understanding. Motifs and metaphors of blood, home, planets, aliens, angels, and place will be more carefully explored on my next viewing, for they all clearly have deliberate meaning. Even the setting of the "Hell's Kitchen" neighborhood is significant, because the film's setting is staged as a kind of purgatory for all of its characters as their mundane world becomes repeatedly touched by transcendent observations and events, as they must all come to grips with the ways in which life and death touch each other. This is an awesome film whose themes and emotions go well beyond what most films will even attempt, although the film repeatedly shows restraint to try to keep such portrayals from appearing over-the-top. But the seeming restraint does not dampen its emotional impact. For those who are comfortable with a sense of spirituality that does not stem from specific points of doctrine (indeed, for which doctrine could be seen as needlessly limiting an appreciation of experience... of reality) this is a film that can be considered authentically religious. Religious NOT in some simple sense of simply saying "let us pray," but in a real-life and complex, challenging way... in which the kingdom of heaven is within, in which God acts through people, and through imperfect people loaded with fears and doubts and pain but who must find ways to express hope and charity in spite of this. This is a great movie...well worth repeated viewings as viewers explore its many nuances and challenges. After all, when one sets about peeling onions, it has this way of making the eyes water up, and that sort of cleansing effect is what this film is really about. The cleansing and watery eyes are no mere surface effect. The cleansing is meant to go very deep.

Bravo!

Rating:
Summary: Starting over in a new land.
Review: Samantha Morton and Paddy Considine play a pair of devoted parents, Johnny and Sarah, who bring their daughters to start a new life "In America." Johnny and Sarah are virtually penniless and they take up residence in a tenement-like dwelling replete with drug addicts and other assorted deviants. The daughters, Ariel and Christy, look upon the move as an exciting adventure to be savored.

Jim Sheridan directed and co-wrote this somewhat autobiographical movie, and he dedicates it to his brother, Frankie, who died at the age of ten. Johnny and Sarah are also bereaved. They lost their young son, and they have had a very hard time letting go of their deep feelings of sorrow and grief.

"In America" is a rich tapestry of sights and sounds, and there are strong elements of magical realism that add a touch of whimsy to the story. Jim Sheridan explores a number of themes in his film, such as the difficulty of facing the death of a loved one, the grinding humiliation of poverty, the hopes and dreams that keep us going, and the relationships that ultimately redeem us.

Two sisters, Emma and Sarah Bolger, beautifully portray the young daughters. These enchanting actresses contribute immeasurably to the film's effectiveness. Djimon Hounsou is also a strong presence as a Nigerian neighbor with demons of his own who strikes up a friendship with the poor Irish family.

Although "In America" is a small movie in many ways, it has a big heart and top-notch performances. Sheridan directs with warmth and compassion, and I get the feeling that he knows how hard it is for an impoverished immigrant to leave his native land and start a new life in strange surroundings.

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful film
Review: This is a really fantastic movie with an amazing cast and a top notch screenplay. This film has gotten some slight criticism for being too sentimental, however I feel the scenes are handled with maturity by the writer/director Jim Sheridan. This film is not for the jaded at heart. It will make a lot of people cry.

However, that's not the reason I like this film so much. The characters are very believable and they develop nicely as the film unfolds. The two child actors are simply magnificent, and Paddy Considine is now on my 'actors to watch for' list. Samantha Morton is good too , but then again, when isn't she?

The direction in this film is great because the film never feels like it's force feeding you. The actors deliver lines that change the entire complextion of entire scenes and sequences. Enough talk, I highly recommend this film.

PS- The 'desperado' sequence is one of the best musical moments in recent film history.

Rating:
Summary: This movie charmed the socks off of Me !
Review: Uh oh, where do i begin? First of all from the very outset; this movie CHARMED THE SOCKS OFF OF ME! I do not know ANY of the actors/actresses in this movie but as far as I am concerned was "BRILLIANT" or "AWESOME" as they say in the USA. I see this movie as one of the great "people" movies that I have ever seen. I am not a movie critic and I have no critique about this movie. It has all the elements I would expect from a people movie, such as LOVE, FEAR, ALONE, LOVED, UNCERTAINTY, (trace elements of) JEALOUSY/ JEALOSY. There are elements of HAPPINESS, SADNESS, FRIENDSHIP also. IF. you are into action, adventure, gun fights, explosions, violence, or gore, then this is *NOT* the movie for you. The ONLY gripe I have about this movie is feeling compelled to write this review, as it helps to sell more products via Amazon .com... NOT because I have a way with words, cos I don't.I really just needed to write something (if not a million words if I could) about it. If you are man or woman enough to watch it without a slight tear in your eye then you were never born with a heart.END OF! Oh BTW. I have NEVER been an emotional person.EVER. until now...until this bloody brilliant movie. Hand on heart, stick a needle in my eye.

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Andy
-X-

Rating:
Summary: Coming to America; The Cute Girls Will Put a Spell on You
Review: "In America" is a semi-autobiographical film about Jim Sheridan, acclaimed director whose works are deeply rooted in Ireland (see gripping film "In the Name of the Father"). But this time he sets his story in New York, telling about a family who just arrived there to start over their life, because of one unforgettable memory in the past.

The film is very episodic (partly because the script is done by three people, Jim Sheridan and his daughters Naomi and Kirsten). It mainly shows the life of the parents, father a struggling actor and the mother supporting him. But what is really wonderful is the two daughters played by the real life sisters Sarah and Emma Bolger. They live in a very dirty apartment where junkies are hunging around, but for the two girls it becomes a magical place, and the unlikely friendship between them and 'the Yelling Man' Mateo (great Djimon Hounsou, "Amistad"). one of the tenant, is one of the touching moment.

That's all you have to know. Though the film features realiable actors like Samantha Morton ("Sweet and Lowdown") or Paddy Considine ("Last Resort"), the film's greatest virtue lies in the incredibly delightful Bolger sisters. They are so cute and natural that even Morton cannot steal the show from them, and you know the fact from the very first scene, where one of the sisters unwittingly says an embarrassing thing which she should never say, at the immigration checkpoint.

The camera (by Declan Quinn, actor Aidan's brother) is nicely captures the hot and cold air of New York (but the interior shots are all taken in the soundstage in Dublin!). Though sometimes the film shows a lull (especially when the little sisters are not on the screen), and some part of the story are left unexplained, "In America" is a strong drama about the people coming to America with dream. And it also does not forget the reality ... in this film, though, it changes into magic realism, thanks to the two Bolgers. Check it out.

Rating:
Summary: An uncommonly humane and moving film.
Review: There are films that are so humane, and make us love their characters so deeply, that they make us better people (at least temporarily) just for watching them. "In America," Jim Sheridan's semiautobiographical movie about about an Irish family in Manhattan in the early 1980s, is one of those films. The Sullivans--father Johnny, mother Sarah, small daughters Christie and Ariel--are still shell-shocked from the death of the family's young son from a brain tumor. They live in poverty in a Lower East Side tenement--the father, an actor, endures a futile daily grind of auditions while driving a cab to make ends meet. Told mostly from Christie's standpoint, "In America" is the story of how the Sullivans fare in their exciting but threatening new home, and of the friends they make--particularly Mateo, the artist dying of AIDS who lives on the floor below. Making Christie the narrator was a master stroke, for the film's touches of magic realism are all the more believable for being a child's perceptions. (One unforgettable scene makes a baseball-toss game at a street fair the subject of unbearable suspense.) "In America" never puts a foot wrong, in its direction, writing or acting; all the performances, unfussy and emotionally direct, seem to be lived rather than acted. The adult actors--Paddy Considine as Johnny, Samantha Morton as Sarah, and Djimon Hounsou as Mateo--give astonishingly strong, moving performances. The children--real-life sisters Sarah and Emma Bolger as Christie and Ariel--are as enchanting as any child actors who have ever stood in front of a camera. "In America" isn't for the "Little House on the Prairie" crowd--the emotions and situations it depicts are messy, and the only sugar in the script is in the ice-cream sundaes Christie and Ariel eat. But love and forgiveness are in abundance here, as are faith, hope and charity. "In America" bears comparison with Elia Kazan's "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn," another, much older movie about an Irish family in a New York tenement. Both have the same level of unsentimental poignancy and meticulous craft.

Rating:
Summary: Sheridan's Most Personal Masterpiece
Review: "In America" does not only concern about the hardship of a family that crossed half the world to settle in a foreign land seeking a more prosperous future, but it also touches on how its remoteness is coped with. "In America" reveals the amount of sacrifice and amount of courage it is needed to relinquish the past in order to fare on to the future. Directed by Jim Sheridan and written by him along with his two daughters Naomi and Kirsten Sheridan, "In America" is a spellbinding look into the life of a family who discovers more of who they are in an extrinsic territory.

One of the main reasons "In America" is so endearing is because of this phenomenal cast. Paddy Considine is able to portray a man deep in affliction but is able to summon up a cheerful face for the children. Samantha Morton, who received an Academy Award nomination, is extremely suggestive through her countenance alone. Real life sisters Sarah and Emma Bolger are ever delightful. Besides being there to tug at our hearts, there are instances where it reveals their significant talent. Consider when Christy snaps at her dad, "Don't 'little girl' me. I've been carrying this family on my back for over a year ever since Frankie died." This easily could have failed and be comical, but Sarah Bolger manages to deliver it in such an honest and convincing fashion. Emma Bolger's moment comes in the ice cream parlor where she says she has no friends and no one to "tell secrets too." This scene may appear effortless but that's because Emma Bolger seems authentically saddened with her character.

Djimon Hounsou, who was first introduced by Steven Spielberg as the slave Cinque in "Amistad" and has played similar characters after that, delivers his best performance as Mateo. We have seen him numerous times before as oppressed men with tough skin that are perspicuous. As Mateo, this finally allows Hounsou to reveal not only his softer side but also exhibit his range. Hounsou gives quite a well-rounded performance where he can be both intimidating and amiable, and forceful yet yielding. He received an Academy Awards nomination and it could have been a serious contender had it been taken place in another year.
-Please continue my review at www.filmwiseguy.funtigo.com

Rating:
Summary: GREAT independent film...
Review: This is what the people at Sundance should watch. This is what we've come to independent films for since the studios began producing nothing but schlock. This is a GOOD movie.

It tells the true story of director Jim Sheridan and his family - how they came to America to live in the slums of Manhattan after the death of their little boy. Things are tough for them at the beginning, but this movie is not so much about the sadness they experience as it is about the simple joys of making a shower work or getting an air conditioner.

It's good to watch this movie at this period in history, when America is in trouble and everybody seems to hate us. Sheridan doesn't sugar-coat the story - they don't get to America and everything magically falls into place. However, there is a certain magic about America and the Sheridan family finds it.

Some of the magic comes from the character of Mateo, wonderfully played by Amistad's Djimon Hounsou. He's an eccentric artist who lives downstairs and befriends the family. In America is great because it is primarily seen through the eyes of the little girl, Christy (Sarah Bolger was nominated for an Oscar for this performance). We see her heartbreak and still her sense of wonder at life.

I won't say they don't make movies like this anymore...but they don't make a lot of them.

Rating:
Summary: Emotion raw and beautiful
Review: For sheer catharsis, In America beats every movie I've seen since "The Sweet Hereafter" years ago. Like that movie, it deals with the aftermath of the death of a child; unlike that movie, it comes down (after much agony) on the side of a loving family as the only thing that can heal us.

The Sullivans, a young couple with two adorable daughters, slip illegally into the U.S., moving to New York. In theory this is to help Da start his acting career; in reality, it is an attempt to escape from the sad memories of young son Frankie, recently died at 5 of a brain tumor.

The performances are all, all stunning. Samantha Morton, her hair shorn like a penitent nun's, gives a stunning performance driven by the despair in her eyes. The real-world sisters Sara and Emma Bolger seem completely transparent; they leave the impression they are not acting at all, but really living the loss of their beloved brother. The African actor Djimon Hounsou looms like a sad but powerful diety over the sorrowful family, alternatively reflecting their pain and offering them solace.

The ending will surprise you - I won't give it away here - but it is a sweet resolution. The film seems to have a basis in truth, as it is written by director Jim Sheridan and his two daughters, and dedicated at the end to the memory of Frankie Sheridan (who, as it happens, was Jim Sheridan's brother rather than his son).

Rating:
Summary: Makes slumming relatively warm and fuzzy
Review: My degree of discomfiture with a film is indicated by the amount of movement in the foot at the end of my leg crossed over the other knee. Half way through IN AMERICA, the appendage began to twitch. By the film's end, it was positively hyperactive. Perhaps it was because my expectations were so high.

IN AMERICA begins as an Irish immigrant family - father Johnny (Paddy Considine), mother Sarah (Samantha Morton), daughters Christy (Sarah Bolger) and Ariel (Emma Bolger) - con their way through U.S. Immigration at the Canadian border. Ostensibly just on vacation, their true intent is to take up illegal residence in New York City. Johnny hopes for an acting gig, but ends up driving a cab between unsuccessful auditions. Sarah, a teacher, must settle for waiting on tables. Home is a derelict, drug and addict-infested apartment building which seems not to perturb in the slightest any member of the family, especially the two girls, who seem positively thrilled to be there. (The viewer might be forgiven for wondering how bad life was back in Ireland if this dump was acceptable. The question is never answered.) Downstairs lives the "man whom screams", Mateo (Djimon Hounsou), an enraged Nigerian painter who's emblazoned "Keep Away" on the outside of his apartment door. As it turns out, Mateo is dying of an unspecified disease (though the script suggested to me that it was AIDS). In the meantime, Sarah becomes pregnant. Her doctor says that if she goes to term, either her life or that of the child may be endangered - again, for unspecified reasons.

Sarah and Johnny previously had a third child, an infant son named Frankie, who'd died back in the Old Country after 1) taking a tumble down the stairs, and 2) developing a fatal brain tumor. Both Johnny and Sarah are wracked with guilt. In the ending credits, the film is dedicated to a real-life Frankie, who, as I understand it, was director/writer Jim Sheridan's brother and who died at 10 years of age. I think perhaps this connection, overt or otherwise, caused Sheridan to over-sentimentalize the script.

At one point, the two girls go trick-or-treating on their first Halloween, and go door to door in their squalid tenement. After relentlessly pounding on Mateo's door, he opens up fit to kill. But he's immediately tamed by the girls' incorrigible sweetness and spends the rest of his screen time eating out of their hands, so to speak. The whole thing seemed too corny, and it was about then that my foot began to fidget. Finally, toward the film's conclusion, the improbable treatment protocol of a case of apparent RH-Hemolytic Disease of the Newborn - contrived solely for maudlin effect - caused me, after thirty years' experience in blood banking, to roll my eyes and send my abused foot into overdrive.

All movies manipulate the audience, but IN AMERICA went over the top, in my opinion. I've seen it touted in respectable rags as "one of the best films of the year". Puhleeze! Compared to such outstanding pictures as THE HUMAN STAIN, MASTER & COMMANDER, MYSTIC RIVER, BARBARIAN INVASIONS, SEABISCUIT, GIRL WITH A PEARL EARRING, VERONICA GUERIN and perhaps a couple of others I've yet to see, IN AMERICA isn't even close.

Four stars is too much, three too little. 3.5 is just right for something too schmaltzy for my curmudgeonly sensitivities despite some fine acting performances, particularly those of Morton and Considine.