Eilis a young Irish girl is given the chance of a better life when her sister Rose arranges for her to move to America, with a job and a place to live sorted out by an Irish Priest.
I really must start this review by saying that after seeing the trailers for the film I was not massively excited to see the film. I now think that is an example of how you cannot always judge a film by its trailer. As I massively enjoyed the film, the story and acting are fantastic and it is well worth heading straight out the cinema to see it. Yes I know that is a bold statement as I am very hard to please at times, but this film has come along at such a perfect time.
So you may actually be wondering why when I did not want to see this film after the trailer and I was not a big fan of Saoirse Ronan either. I have just never warmed to her previous performances, I think you will guess where I am going with that comment, she has won me over with this one. I decided to go and see the film after some very good hype and buzz around it on twitter and ratings of reviews (never read them before hand). When I actually found out a big part of the story was actually about being homesick, that massively influenced my interest. Back in 2009 I left England to live in New Jersey, stayed just under six months but did have trouble with being homesick at times, it is not a good feeling at all.
This film is a journey and we really feel what Eilis feels, I was nearly in tears at least three times it was extremely emotional and very hard to handle at times. The growth from Eilis is brilliant to watch unfold in front of you. How different she became after the move, the struggles she faced but how one person can really change your life. In Eilis’ case that was Tony a lovely Italian American who courted her in the perfect way. It is a fantastic love story in the sense that it feels a little bit awkward at times and on edge but I thought that gave it more depth and felt real. It makes me wish that things were more like that now, the dances, cinema dates and actually talking to each other.
It was all obviously not going to be that simple and easy for everything to fall into place for Eilis, it had me totally on edge to what was going to happen next. While it was growing increasingly likely that she was going to have to return to Ireland for some reason or another it also gave you doubt of how everything was going to end up. The trip back to Ireland was frustrating in the sense that we had seen her growth and make a new life for herself but from that small town no-one was going to understand and expected her to just have a “normal” life now. It really did have the potential to break your heart even more, I won’t spoil in which ways that actually happens, it keeps you right on the edge.
The performances were very strong and I really did enjoy Saoirse Ronan and Emory Cohen, they had good chemistry together. The added bonuses of both Jim Broadbent and Julie Walters added that little bit extra to the scenes they were involved in. The audience was laughing quite a lot of Walters scenes around the dinner table, which were very amusing. I also got excited when Domhnall Gleeson appeared as had totally forgot that he was in it.
This is certainly one of my favorite films of 2015 and I can’t really see many more left to be released changing that. Very pleased I have now seen this one, did you like it?
