TWO COUNTRIES, TWO LOVES, ONE HEART.
In 1952, Eilis Lacey (Saoirse Ronan) leaves Ireland for New York City and settles in at a boardinghouse in Brooklyn, where she also finds a job… and a potential Italian boyfriend (Emory Cohen). A heartfelt look at the Irish-American immigrant experience through the eyes of a young woman who battles homesickness and eventually learns that she needs to choose between Ireland and America regardless of how painful it’s going to be. The second half becomes less engrossing as we can sense how this is going to end, but on the whole it’s a very emotional, romantic and sweet film, luminous even, anchored by Ronan’s down-to-earth performance.
2015-Britain-Ireland-Canada. 111 min. Color. Produced by Finola Dwyer, Amanda Posey. Directed by John Crowley. Screenplay: Nick Hornby. Novel: Colm TĂłibĂn. Cast: Saoirse Ronan (Eilis Lacey), Domhnall Gleeson (Jim Farrell), Emory Cohen (Anthony Fiorello), Jim Broadbent, Julie Walters, Brid Brennan.
Trivia: Rooney Mara was allegedly first cast as Eilis.
BAFTA: Best British Film.
Last word: “After meeting [the producers] there was a bit of due diligence. As soon as it was properly mine, I said that Saoirse, whom I knew from ‘Atonement’, was my first choice to play Eilis. The irony is she would have been way too young when they first approached me. I went to meet her in Dublin and she was on the cusp of making a decision to move to London, which I encouraged. Then a year went by between us meeting and starting the film. She did move to London and was devastatingly homesick. She wanted to know if it got easier.” (Crowley, Deadline)
