Rating: 
Summary: Fanciful but Poignant Story of Recovery. And a Great Cast.
Review: An Irish family, grief-stricken after the death of their young son, moves to New York City to start their lives afresh. With little to their names besides the clothes on their backs, Sarah (Samantha Morton), Johnny (Paddy Constantine), and their two daughters, Christy (Sarah Bolger) and Ariel (Emma Bolger), move into a run-down tenement occupied mostly by drug addicts and misfits. The girls make the acquaintance of a reclusive African artist (Djimon Hounsou) who lives downstairs from them, and that unusual friendship helps see the family through their grief and recover their hope for the future and for each other."In America" was inspired by two events in the life of its writer and director, Jim Sheridan. Sheridan's brother died when he was a child, and, as an adult, he illegally immigrated with his family to New York in the 1980s. Sheridan has combined these two seminal events into one generation with the help of his two daughters, Naomi and Kirsten Sheridan, who contributed their childhood memories to the screenplay. "In America" is the story of a family that deals with great loss by uprooting itself and making a new life in an entirely different environment. Already emotionally estranged from one another, they become strangers in a new world. Once a working class family in Ireland, they now struggle with poverty in New York. And this somehow cures their ills. While I was watching this film, I was captivated by its dreamlike quality and impressed with the terrific cast. The story is narrated by Christy, a precocious 10-year-old who documents her world and her feelings with her ever-present camcorder. The actresses who play Christy and her younger sister Ariel really are sisters, and they give some of the most charming and impressive performances by child actors that I have ever seen. Samantha Morton is also particularly good as their broken-hearted mother, Sarah. The character that serves as a catalyst for emotional change, Mateo, the artist downstairs, is little more than a cliché, although Djimon Hounsou plays him well. After I had thought about the film for a few hours, I began to realize that the story is more contrived than I had originally noticed. Mateo is far from being the only cliché, and living in destitution doesn't provide opportunities for emotional epiphanies. It is, in fact, very dangerous, exhausting, and depressing. But as I counted "In America"'s contrivances and preposterous elements, I was also struck by the fact that I wasn't inclined to think about them as I was watching the movie. That's because "In America"'s dreamlike quality and its engaging performances overcome its lapses in credibility. I don't know that this film is supposed to be literally believable. The family's emotional journey is poignant and rings of truth. The details are a little fantastic. But it is told through the memories of a child, which may partly explain its uneven realism. Memory is highly subjective, in any case; its only what one person noticed and clung to. I recommend "In America" for its fine performances and its unique and slightly fanciful perspective.
Rating: 
Summary: Heartwarming and basically terrific.
Review: Jim Sheridan's IN AMERICA, though you may not realize it when you watch it, is a fable about wishes, dreams, good defeating bad, families growing stronger, love outlasting all adversity and America as the land of opportunity. It's a delightful film, touching without being too cute. One thing you must realize throughout the film, when it takes turns toward optimism when other films would grow darker, is that the story is told through the eyes of Christie, the 10-year-old daughter of an Irish immigrant family recently relocated to New York. She narrates the story. She speeds it up and slows it down as she needs to. She talks of her sister Ariel's fears, of her mother's strength and of her father's lost smile. And, most importantly, she puts a positive spin on each of her proud family's struggles. Another director might have taken this same story and gone in a different, darker direction with it. The elements are there, certainly. The family is poor, living in a tenement alongside beggars and drug addicts. Johnny, the girls' father, is an out-of-work actor who's uprooted his family to escape sad memories of his son Frankie, who died. Mateo, the next-door neighbor, and Sarah, the mother, are both faced with life-threatening conditions. But the atmosphere that Sheridan provides us in this film is comforting and light. The city is enchanting. The tenement is both scary and magical, depending upon the story that Christie is telling the audience. No adult problem goes unsolved for long, even ones that seem particularly bleak. Throughout these positive twists, the importance of the narrator is key. Happy endings are important to a little girl, particularly one who feels so responsible for her own family. At one point in the story, for instance, she saves the family from their latest crisis and relates to her father that she's been the family's savior for a year. Though it focuses on her entire family, it's Christie's story. And, while she's telling it, it's really moving and uplifting. The acting here is uniformly terrific. Paddy Considine, playing Johnny the father, is a revelation. He's attractive, strong, a little crazy and yet weighed down by grief. Samantha Morton delivers another compelling performance, yet she comes off here as sweeter and more sympathetic than she did in the disappointing MORVERN CALLAR. Djimon Honsou, best known for his work in AMISTAD, is absolutely spectacular as Mateo, the girls' doomed neighbor. And Sarah and Emma Bolger, real-life sisters playing the girls in the film, manage the difficult task of playing adorable, likable, distinct children without coming off as entirely too precious and cute. The script is terrific, and the direction is quite good. IN AMERICA is just lovely.
Rating:
Summary: "It seemed like all our problems are flying away"
Review: Reeling from a family tragedy, Irish immigrant Johnny (Paddy Considine); his wife, Sarah (Samantha Morton); and their two imaginative young daughters look to start over in the United States. Full of hope, they move into a rundown tenement in the roughest part of Manhattan. They're there to live the American dream, but early on, the Big Apple proves to be a sour experience. Their place is a dump, good jobs are difficult to find, and dangers lurk everywhere. Despite everything, the girls find New York a nice escape from their past lives and think there's magic in Manhattan. IN AMERICA is so much more than the typical immigrant story. Rather, this film portrays realistic and heartfelt emotions of grief and bewilderment, sorrow and happiness. I was completely captivated by this family's struggles and couldn't help being drawn into their personal dilemmas. This is a delightful film worthy of praise and admiration.
Rating:
Summary: Hopfull and Grant, Truly American - The Forrest Gump of 2003
Review: This simple movie is full of storytelling. Dramatic but yet hopeful and pleasurable. The story of the Irish family as they come to the US and build their lifes in N.Y.C. When I left the movie I remember the hopeful and grant feeling I left from Forrest Gump - Highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: A moving family story
Review: "In America," directed by Jim Sheridan, tells the story of a modern-day Irish family that moves to New York City, where the father hopes to pursue his acting career. Their lives become connected to that of Mateo (played by Djimon Hounsou), a troubled artist who lives in their apartment building. This is a beautiful film, superbly acted by a fine cast. In addition to Hounsou, the principal players are Paddy Considine and Samantha Morton as the Irish parents, and Sarah Bolger and Emma Bolger as daughters Christy and Ariel. The cast members have a powerful chemistry which really gives impact to the characters' interconnected relationships. "In America" is a story that's told with a gritty, sweaty urban realism, yet many scenes have a magical, almost fairy-tale like quality. Sheridan weaves allusions to the film "E.T." into this film as an effective motif that complements the characters and their emotional journeys. Also effective is the film's use of classic songs to heighten the emotion of the story. "In America" is an intriguing portrait of multiethnic urban life, and also offers a compelling look at life in a family that is struggling financially. Although there are moments of pain, there are also nice humorous touches and the film overall has a genuine sweetness that never seems fake. This story deals with enduring themes: family ties, friendship, and surviving tragedy. But most of all it's about hope and embracing life.
Rating:
Summary: Drama of Irish immigrant family
Review: This film begins as a young Irish couple drive their station wagon past the Canadian-U.S. border patrol with their two kids in the back seat. After a brief tour of Times Square, the family settles into a shabby tenement. Johnny, the father, steals the acting spotlight for the first half of the film as he attempts unsuccessfully to find work as an actor, as he attempts to attend to fatherly roles such as beating the heat & humidity of New York's summers by carrying up three stair flights a huge air conditioner, buying a new plug with his last pennies (which come from beer bottle returns money), only to find out it doesn't work; as he attempts to win an E.T. doll for his daughters at a local carnival, coming dangerously closely to losing his family rent money; but most importantly, perhaps, by constantly hamming it up in a fatherly way around his daughters, both of whom are exceptionally bright. Eventually his daughters, over Halloween, meet a downstairs tenant Mateo who turns out to be surprisingly nice & kind family friend. Striken with AIDS, he is a Nigerian artist.
In the film's second half, Sarah assumes a more important dramatic role as she becomes pregnant and has a difficult premature delivery. This set of circumstances reminds everyone of the two girls' deceased brother Frankie, who died at a young age of a brain tumor. At this point, Frankie becomes an absent extra lead in the film, similar to the deceased Diana in the film "Moonlight Mile". Due to this family's closeness, Frankie, who is seen only in camcorder shots, exerts a strong influence over his family. The film is filled with atmospherics from the New York tenement where the family lives; fortunately the story has a happy ending as the baby survives and thrives after a blood transfusion which one of his sisters graciously donates, and someone has paid the $30,000 hospital bill. The film is a very touching story of a young Irish family in impoverished circumstances. All five leads, including the two children, are played with great skill.
Rating:
Summary: sweet film about family, loss and new beginnings
Review: This story, about an Irish family that immigrates to Manhattan after the death of a son, is a sweet film about family, loss and new beginnings. What I liked best about the movie were the very strong performances by the two young girls and the neighbor, Mateo. On the down side, I sometimes found the Irish accents hard to understand and details were sometimes unrealistic. The story wasn't strong enough for me to consider it outstanding, but it's an interesting watch, a nice change of pace from Hollywood and a good family film.
Rating:
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: Evocative, emotional and memorable
Review: A pitch perfect tale of overcoming loss and beginning afresh told with masterly skill by Jim Sheridan. Edges close but never tips into sentimentality and is marvellously upbeat despite some truly difficult circumstances the family encounters. With considerable generosity of spirit this is a film to lose yourself in and relish. Amazingly realistic and honest. Brilliant.
Rating: 
Summary: I expected to like this film, but alas...
Review: Sure, you can read much into this film if such is your predilection, but the screenplay does not support much of the praise expressed above. The notion what this film is perceived to be about, in other words, is not successfully developed herein. Notwithstanding remarks above to the contrary, Samantha Morton---who was wonderful, I might add, in the film "The Sweet & Lowdown"---does not "anchor"this film. The film is, in fact, carried along by the delightful Ariel---Miss Morton's eldest daughter in this film---and thence carried along by this girl's friendship with a downstairs sickly neighbor (named Mateo) who has lost his will to live. The other players only detract from this focus. Much of the introductory buildup of this film is thus counterproductive. When a pre-teen eclipses those playing her parents not only with her role, but with her acting as well---well, such puts paid to the praise showered on Miss Morton and the man playing her husband. The father's part, moreover, begs credulity. This man takes his family to New York City for a new start, a better, life; this man who has almost no money when they so embark from Canada, by car, headed toward the "Big Apple." Once in NYC then---at an amusement park---he later gambles their rent money, trying to win a $10 cupie doll for his daughter! It's a double down game which his pride prevents him from quitting as he continually gets deeper in the hole; and does so as his wife frantically watches, until she too (Miss Morton) joins him in jeopardizing their children's welfare. It's an irresponsible display not likely to be so effortlessly engaged in by a poor immigrant couple who (presumably) know the value of a dollar saved. Soon thereafter, once the parents survive this close call, the husband proceeds to buy an air conditioner he can't afford (solely for comic effect in the film, it seems), then somehow enrolls his daughters in Catholic school. And this, all the time while he pounds the pavement trying to land acting auditions! Yes, the man is an aspiring actor too. So while his family tries to make ends meet he indulges his dream. My point is that such is NOT a particularly believable immigrant scenario. One doesn't take one's wife and 2 pre-teen daughters to NYC with no money to try to make it on "Broadway." Some months on of struggle (though we never see anyone working) we find that the wife has become pregnant. I'm surprised they didn't throw a trip to Disneyworld into this story too! If you still want to see this film, instead of considering buying this DVD, I suggest you borrow this film from your local library instead, or rent it. (Obviously if you were looking for a cheerleader's review of "In America" you chose the wrong opinion to read. I heard the buzz too & expected to like this film myself, but---objectively speaking---can't say that I have for the above reasons.) Cheers!
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