"In America" the new film by Irish director Jim Sheridan is a movie that is so personal and heart wrenchingly sentimental that its detractors will call it manipulative. (as several of my friends have told me) At times, the movie does overextend itself to evoke emotion; but what those detractors seem to ignore is this: “In America” is a very good movie. It is the type of small, well-told, well-acted movie that will likely be ignored by Oscar voters for flashier, epic films, but will resonate deeply with those who see it.

Written by Sheridan and his daughters Naomi and Kirsten Sheridan, “In America” tells the story of an immigrant Irish family with two young daughters who moves to New York City in the 1980's. The family recently also lost a son named Frankie who died of a brain tumor. Driving in a beat up old jalopy, the family searches Manhattan for a place to live and along the way sees the many sites of New York City, including Times Square. Unfortunately Times Square is an anachronistic nightmare with among other things a billboard of Jessica Alba hanging in the background. (I forgave this minor flaw because the movie is a low-budget independent film and probably did not have the budget to redo Times Square). They move into a new apartment in Hell’s Kitchen, which is riddled with drug users and junkies, because that is all they can afford.

The movie uses two plot points to move the story forward—the immigrant family’s adjustment to their new surroundings and Frankie’s death. It deals with both these issues superbly.

Although “In American” is sentimental about these new immigrants, it is also quite insightful about their struggles. A scene where the father, Johnny (Paddy Considine), is a few cents short at a convenient store, but the clerk will not let him slide because he lives in the “junkie building,” in an especially astute scene. The stare Johnny returns bleeds with humiliation, a stare that tells us this is not exactly what he expected from America. (Little bit off topic but as the son of immigrants, I often wonder what possessed my parents to move thousands of miles across the globe for poverty and uncertainty, in the hopes that the pipe dream they believed in—America is the land of opportunity—could be true. It is the same question that plagued me when I watched this film.)

The film is also quite perceptive on loss, especially the death of a young child. A scene where Johnny is pretending to be a monster, calling out his two daughters, Christy and Ariel (real life sisters Sarah and Emma Bolger respectively), names in a fatuous monster voice is a great example. After scaring his daughters into feigned fear, he next calls out his son, Frankie’s name; Johnny’s face suddenly becomes saddened and turns to his wife, Sarah (Samantha Morton), and tells her for a moment he thought Frankie was there. The scene is inspired, a great moment of lucidity on pain and how a loved ones death may be pushed back into one’s psyche because it is the only way to move on, but is never forgotten.

The acting is the film is excellent. Paddy Considine, who I’ve never seen in a movie, immediately impresses upon the viewer his charisma; Johnny is a complex character, a resolute struggling actor, who is sensitive to his family, and who constantly worries that Frankie’s death may have killed any enthusiasm he has left for life, and Considine manages to captures all sides of his personality with grace. Samantha Morton, whose big eyes alone enlivened movies like “Minority Report,” is given more of a speaking role here and excels; her face is so expressive in crucial scenes that I never once thought of her as an actress.

But it is the two young girls who steal the show. Sarah Bolger, who plays the protagonist Christy, has an immediate screen presence; her expressions are serene yet wise and although she doe not speak as much as her other sister (except in voiceovers), her reticence is effective because when she does speak everyone listens. There is a dramatic scene near the end where Sarah says, "Don't little girl me. I've been carrying this family on my back for over a year." She performs the line well; not overdone or dramatically but calmly as her character would say it. Emma Bolger, who plays Ariel, however, nearly dominates the movie. She is the kind of talkative, bratty kid who only the most frigid will find annoying.

Djimon Hounsou, who (he was in “Gladiator” and “Amistad,”) plays Mateo, an angry artist who lives upstairs from the family but who reveals a gentler side to him, also performs admirably.

One of Hounsou’s better scenes occurs during the midway point in the movie. In the scene, Mateo yells at Johnny, “I love your wife. And I love you. And I love your children.” Initially the scene seems overdone, but the film quickly redeems itself as Johnny looks up at Mateo and understands something he had not before. To reveal it would be sadistic, but lets just say it changes the outlook of the movie. It is the typical type of scene “In America,” a movie filled with scenes we have seen in other movies before; but unlike those “In America” manages to find emotional truth in each one of them.


Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Good for a Rainy Day
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 9 - 12