In America

Rating:
Summary: A young girl carries her family on her back "In America"
Review: At the start of "In America" we are introduced a family of illegal immigrants. This is a bit surprising because Johnny (Paddy Considine) and Sarah (Samantha Morton), along with their two young daughters, Christie (Sarah Bolger) and Ariel (Emma Bolger), are an Irish family driving across the border into the United States from Canada. After all, we have been conditioned to think of people of color as constituting the faces of illegal immigrants and the story of Irish immigration to America was largely a 19th-century tale.

However, the idea of this family being illegal immigrants is not important to the heart of the story and there is a sense in which the only reason it is brought up is so that the officials at the border can ask how many children the parents have, because one says "three" and the other says "two." This is how we first learn about Frankie, the young son whose tragic death haunts his parents and is never far from the thoughts of young Christie and her precious cam corder. A gulf has been created between the two sisters, and Ariel complains that she has no one to tell her secrets to. This is a key idea because Christie does: Frankie.

The family struggles to survive in New York City. They find an apartment in a less than savory building, which makes you wonder whether things were really worse for them in Ireland or if we are supposed to think that they have made a mistake coming to the New World. Johnny wants to be an actor and ends up being a cab driver while Sarah, unable to teach, becomes a waitress in a ice cream shoppe, while the girls are dispatched to Catholic school. There the national anthem has Ariel worried about a blind man named Jose and the girls stand out because their Halloween costumes are homemade. But the debacle of Halloween and the strange American ritual of going trick-or-treat results in the family ends up with the girls making a connection with the "man who screams," a tormented Nigerian artist, Mateo (Djimon Hounsou) who lives downstairs. This relationship becomes important, especially when Sarah becomes pregnant and there are complications.

For me this film boils down to a final wish. Sarah, who provides the film's sparse narration, tells us early on that she has three wishes that she can ask of Frankie that he will grant her. He told her this before he died and she has absolute faith that this is the case and when her first two wishes are granted we become true believers as well. But as Jim Sheridan's film reaches its climax Sarah is faced with too many choices for that final wish and the only thing that mattered to me was what this 11-year-old girl would wish for in the end. I think everyone who gets caught up in the decision will be surprised by the choice.

Both Morton and Hounsou were nominated for Oscars, in the Best Actress and Best Supporting Actor categories respectively, but it was the interplay between the real life sisters playing Christie and Ariel that captivates us. It is so natural and unaffected that its reality comes as a shock. The acting in this film is uniformly strong, which is why it is easy to forgive those points where Sheridan become a bit too manipulative. But for me, in the end, "In America" comes down to Sarah Bolger's Christie, complaining that Ariel has already become an American because she says "cool," singing "Desperado" during a concert at her new school, telling her father" "Don't "little girl" me. I've been carrying this family on my back for over a year," and using the final wish that Frankie gave her.

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Summary: Added Magic on the Home Small Screen
Review: Though having seen and reviewed the theatrical screening of IN AMERICA, with the release of this DVD I feel as though I have just seen this profoundly moving film for the first time! Many of the intimate films shown in theaters, while successful and satisfying, come across with even more power in the quiet presence of the home. The DVD of IN AMERICA is an example of that. Somehow having the story told on the small screen allows all the whispered moments of subdued or frightened passion to become more poignant. Samantha Morton's sensitive map of a face conveys more than even this fine script gives her. The delicacy of the Bolger sisters as Christy and Ariel Sullivan are in a class all their own and I wonder why the Academy didn't pay as much attention to these roles as they did Keisha Castle-Hughes for her rather small role in WHALE RIDER. Paddy Considine becomes part of your household and the enormity Djimon Hounson's Mateo now is more human and credible when his already magnificently large form is reduced to a TV screen size. This film stands strongly as a fine example of American filmmaking and should be in the private collection of everyone who collects favorite films on DVD.

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Summary: Touching but flawed
Review: In America is an engaging film on many fronts. The acting is superb. Samantha Morton and Paddy Considine turn in convincing performance as Irish immigrant parents stricken by the loss of their son. Their surviving children, played by real-life sisters Emma and Sarah Bolger, give us an innocent and wide-eyed lens through which we see the turmoil and abject poverty of their surroundings.

We are quickly drawn in by this movie. From the opening scene in which the family enters the country illegally, we are invested by their pain and uncertainty. We literally wince as the family enters their squalid New York apartment for the first time, and we smile as the girls somehow manage to eke out a childhood existence in this place of rats and drug addicts.

The transformation and eventual healing of this family begins with a new pregnency and an unlikely friendship with a mysterious artist (Djimon Hounsou). The crux of the drama is how each character finds their place in this situation - the girls in school, the mother's complicated pregnancy, and the father's struggle to pay for it all.

Alas, the movie has it's drawbacks as well. The rough neighborhood in which the family lives is a backdrop only. It is there for initial shock value and contrast. The story doesn't fully engage us in the fear and danger inherent in such a place. Djimon Hounsou's character, while well protrayed, is a cliche. We've seen the tortured, eccentric artist in too many other movies, and his fate is apparent from the moment of his introduction. And finally, the family's key crisis is resolved by a financial deus ex machina - and I felt cheated as a result.

However, this movie is worth watching, particularly for the performances. It gives us a modern twist on the 'coming to America' theme.

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Summary: Touching Movie With Touching Performances
Review: "In America", starring Samantha Morton and Paddy Considine, is a great film that is sure to touch its audiences. Director Jim Sheridan ("My Left Foot") leads the cast and crew in creating this masterpiece. Its unique plot of an Irish family who moves to the US is brilliant. As the film continues, more storylines combine to one another, making this film more remarkable. The physical and emotional surroundings offer more realisms than most other modern-day films. The family's hardships are expressed wonderfully from the writing to the acting to the environmental backgrounds. As the parents struggle more intensively to support the family, one of the daughters, Christy, begins expressing how wishmaking, prayer, and magic affect the family and her. It especially becomes more heartfelt once the family introduces themselves to a neighbor, a lonely man dying of AIDS. The storyline never stops surprising audiences.

Samantha Morton ("Sweet And Lowdown") and Djimon Hounsou ("Amistad") are triumphant in their Oscar-nominated roles (Best Actress/ Best Supporting Actor). Both offer great heartfelt presences through every scene, Morton as the struggling mother and Hounsou as the lonely neighbor friend. The expressions give this film the added emotional value. Paddy Considine's role as the family father, which was highly underrated, also plays a crutial part in the film's quality. All other actors also offer perspective to the emotional and physical surroundings.

"In America" is sure to move its audiences. It will surely continue pleasing audiences as it already has.

Rating:
Summary: The Only Movie I Ever Watched That Left Me Speechless...
Review: Wow. This movie has the most wonderful cast, with a terrific storyline too. I was stunned by the emotion of the movie overall and the incredible acting, especially by the two sisters. Even though this is a movie, they give not a hint of knowing it, flawlessly playing the parts of two girls who are watching their family fall apart over a tremendous loss. I was amazed by the girl who plays Christie Sullivan. She was able to make the character, though very young, have a certain wisdom that's very evident and crucial to the integrity of the movie. Christy Sullivan is the daughter who opens her father's eyes, protects her younger sister, befriends a desperate man, and weaves the family back together.

This movie has a lot of depth, able to evoke emotions you never knew you had. I think a lot of aspects worked together to make this movie an great success. Cinematography was very important, as it captured every mood of the characters. Acting was crucial - and the actors never let go of you heart through the entire movie. Dialogue was excellent, as you watch their interactions, what the characters say are very important to understanding their agonies, hopes, and realizations. I'm sure there are many more factors that make this movie so emotional - it's a feast for the senses. But my vote is for the acting - how movie characters in this movie can seem so real...the genius of it...blows the mind.

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Summary: The Dizzying Highs, The Terrifying Lows...Welcome to America
Review: The story begins before the movie does. We come in as parents Paddy Considine and Samantha Morton attempt the slip into America with daughters Ariel and Christy, and escape the ghosts of their past. Samantha Morton runs the show with her third Oscar Caliber Performance (Minority Report and Morvern Callar were the others), but the supporting cast is not to be over looked.
Djimon Hounsou is brilliant as Mateo, and overlooked artist, slowly fading away in his dumpy apartment until Ariel and Christy come trick-or-treating. Christy is the unsung star of the movie, narrating the entire film with a divine understanding about everything that her family is going through.
In America is one of the most authentically emotional films I've ever seen. It's truly brilliant.

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Summary: Simply un-missable
Review: by turns hopeful and miserable, this family is learning to pull together, for better or for worse. Really, see it. It will change your heart and your mind.

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Summary: What a soundtrack
Review: Two magical moments occur when the picture and the music deliver a punch. This movie brings a smile to your face and a feel good feeling to your soul.

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Summary: You either get it or you don't
Review: I have never felt such an affinity for a movie. Like the main characters, my wife and I also lost a child. After seeing it for the first time, I was speechless for three days. The father's face was mine, the mother's words were my wife's, and the family roles of the daughters were the same as mine. Overlook the minor flaws and you will see emotional emptiness combined with timid hope. A must see if you want to see into the hearts of those who have similarly mourned.

Rating:
Summary: Ghosts
Review: "In America" is in many ways like a dream; and in some like a nightmare. It tells its story in such a peaceful, idyllic manner that it is easy to miss the desperation and pathos of this very real story of immigrants coming to the US with big dreams and bigger hearts.
Johnny (Paddy Considine), Sarah (Samantha Morton), Christy (Sarah Bolger) and Ariel (Emma Bolger) sneak into the US and land in the wilds of NYC: all of them eager and open to realize their dreams of a better life. They have somehow escaped Ireland and are trying to get over the accidental death of a son, Frankie and like most families they are dealing with the death in their own way. Johnny tries to hide his desolation and guilt by rushing about in a frenzy of work but in the penultimate scene of the film screams out: "I'm a Ghost!" I can't feel anything, I can't even cry."
Samantha Morton is a bundle of motherly love and devotion yet within her huge eyes you can see that she is also masking a deep and relentless guilt. Sarah and Emma Bolger are luminous and real and neither strikes an unnatural chord throughout.
"In America" is a visual and graphic poem about Love and about Family. It is truthful and honest and doesn't shy away from the seamier side of life nor does it fail to acknowledge the emotionally aware and open spirit of we Americans: all of us immigrants at one time or another.