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It’s a classic struggle: pursuing what you’ve always wanted, but at the cost of leaving behind what you’ve always known. In the Oscar nominated Brooklyn, the lead character must choose between her family and her Irish homeland, and her new love and opportunities in America.

Elise (pronounced Ay-lish), a young Irish immigrant, finds herself alone in 1950s Brooklyn, where she’s sent by her older sister, Rose, as opportunities beyond an early marriage are limited for a girl Elise’s age. Racked with guilt at leaving Rose behind to take care of their ailing mother, but desperate for a chance to build a new life for herself, Elise sets off by boat for America. While staying at a boarding house for single women, working at a fancy department store, and taking night classes to become an accountant, Elise battles against her introverted nature and her homesickness, questioning if she made the right choice. When she meets Tony, a young Italian plumber, she finally allows herself to settle into her new world. However, when circumstances conspire to send her back to Ireland for an extended visit, Elise must choose between her life in America and new possibilities in her homeland that didn’t exist for her before she left.

Brooklyn is a beautifully filmed, delicate story playing against the backdrop of Irish immigrants in the 1950s flowing in to America to find new opportunities. It captures the apprehension, excitement, and doubt many experienced at having to leave behind their families and all they had known. The film is nominated for three Oscars: Best Picture, Best Actress in a Leading Role, and Best Adapted Screenplay. Saoirse Ronan, first gaining wide notice for her role in Atonement, makes a star turn here as Elise. Ronan conveys more complex emotions in a quiet closeup than many actors do with pages of dialogue. Her character is not a cliched wide-eyed opportunist in America; she brings a melancholy gravity to Elise, and keeps the character sympathetic even as she finds herself making tough and dangerous choices. Emory Cohen is a revelation as Tony, Elise’s love in the new world, bringing a sincerity, charm, and vulnerability to his character that is absent in most male roles these days.

Brooklyn is both a throwback to Old Hollywood film-making and a thoroughly modern look at what is lost when we leave behind the world we’ve known for the one we dream exists. Supporting roles are inhabited by the always solid Jim Broadbent as the priest who helps sponsor Elise’s new life, and Julie Walters as the owner of the boarding house, where Elise lives, and where the funniest scenes take place. Brooklyn is delicate, charming, moving and thoughtful in a way many films today are not. It takes its time to tell Elise’s story, and the audience I saw it with was fully invested in the journey, to the point of applause when the credits began to role.

Reviewed by: Matt Baltzell on February 9, 2016