DOZENS OF FILMS have screened at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, but one film earning oodles of acclaim is Irish film Brooklyn.
Based on the bestselling Colm Tóibín novel, Brooklyn tells the story of a young Irish woman named Eilis who moves to Brooklyn to start a new life and fall in love.
The film is directed by Irish filmmaker John Crowley, who previously helmed Intermission, and stars Saoirse Ronan in the lead role. Domhnall Gleeson, Emory Cohen, Jim Broadbent and Julie Walters co-star.
The film was shot in Ireland and Canada, with filming taking place in Tóibín’s native Co. Wexford last year.
The good news? Not only is it Irish, but it has earned actual rave reviews.
Don’t believe us? Read on…
The Hollywood Reporter described the film as “beautiful and moving”.
Classily and classically crafted in the best sense by director John Crowley and screenwriter Nick Hornby, this superbly acted romantic drama is set in the early 1950s and provides the feeling of being lifted into a different world altogether, so transporting is the film’s sense of time and place and social mores.
Vanity Fair reserved special praise for Saoirse Ronan.
…the movie belongs wholly to Ronan, who at just 20 years old is such a remarkably poised and confident performer. She’s a great actress to watch, and Brooklyn is a wonderful, if low-key, platform for her talents.
The magazine’s critic also wondered what planet Saoirse Ronan could possibly hail from, bless.
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Gregory Ellwood of HitFix said that it reminds viewers of what love is
Every year Sundance somehow selects a film that either reminds you why you are in love or, for the single people in the house, makes you want to fall in love.
And basically sobbed in the cinema.
Almost an hour and a half later I was so moved by what had transpired I was fighting back the tears.
Brian Tallerico of RogerEbert.com called it “magical”
…this is a beautiful film from top to bottom, a piece that worked the kind of old-fashioned, romantic movie magic on me in ways that are all too rare.
In short, emotions were felt.
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The good news?
After screening at the festival, the film was acquired for distribution by Fox Searchlight for a cool $9 million – one of the biggest deals made at this year’s festival.
A release date has yet to be confirmed, but colour us excited.
