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95 of 98 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Emotion raw and beautiful, February 9, 2004
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).
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35 of 36 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Heartwarming and basically terrific., December 14, 2003
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.
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29 of 31 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
ultimately a beautiful and heartfelt work, January 9, 2004
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!
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