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IN AMERICA Send This Review to a Friend
Jim Sheridan, director of such outstanding films as "My Left Foot" and "In the Name of the Father," has a new film that aims straight at the heart. Based on an experience from his own life, "In America" tells a story of a father, mother and their two daughters who immigrate to New York from Ireland by way of Canada and try to cope with poverty as they live in a run down building frequented by junkies. The cast is terrific, especially the two young girls who play the daughters.
It is not only the economic struggle that weighs them down. The loss of another child, Frankie, and the guilt carried about whether his death might have been prevented, haunts the family. Christy, the older daughter who narrates the story and is played with moving understatement by Sarah Bolger, 11, keeps a spiritual contact with Frankie and believes he has left her three wishes that must be used carefully. Her sister Ariel, played by feisty young Emma Bolger, 7--they're real life sisters too--is so delightful you may want to scoop her from the screen and take her home.
Paddy Considine gives a vibrant performance as Johnny, the father, who yearns to be an actor and is making the audition rounds. Samantha Morton, whose face is a roadmap of quiet emotion, plays Sarah, the wife and mother, who struggles to keep her chin up and be supportive but is clearly hurting. She has become pregnant again and is determined to have her child despite a birth being a threat to her health.
The odd entry into this mix is Djimon Hounsou as Mateo, the mysterious neighbor who is a painter and keeps to himself, but becomes more social as a result of the friendship that Christy and Ariel strike up with him. Mateo has his own cross to bear, and he turns out to be a major force in the family's life.
Director Sheridan, who wrote the screenplay with his daughters Naomi and Kirsten Sheridan, keeps an aura of wonder about the film, almost as if it is a magical fairy tale. I confess to finding the metaphysical ideas involving the children and the spiritual relationship with the departed Frankie a bit too precious. But there's no denying the film's emotional impact, and it is a beautifully conceived and executed work that is obviously heartfelt by the director, who has revealed its relationship to the death of a brother, to whom the film is dedicated. "In America" glows with artistry and is one of the more satisfying and admirable films of the year. A Fox Searchlight Pictures release.
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