Brooklyn is about an Irish woman who immigrates to the US in the early 1950s then returns home and decide whether she will stay or not. I love Nick Hornby, who adapted the screenplay. I think that Saoirse Ronan is one of the best actors of her time. Brooklyn is a beautiful film to watch, but I don’t get why there are so many accolades for Brooklyn. Brooklyn was in theaters FOREVER. I feel like all of my friends invited me to see it. Everyone seems to agree that Brooklyn is the best thing since sliced bread.
If Brooklyn was a CBS Sunday night movie, I would be impressed, but Brooklyn is a movie released in theaters and is considered one of the most notable films of 2015. Um, no, not even if I squint and tilt my head to the side. First, I don’t expect every immigrant story to be arduous, but Brooklyn was the nicest immigrant experience that I have ever seen. Even when she is doing a crappy job at work, her boss gives her a break instead of firing her on the spot. Her boss understands that she is homesick. Everyone jumps at the opportunity to help her fit in. There is not a problem with her being Catholic or dating an Italian guy. Everything is awesome.
Second, the main character is not well developed. She is a blank screen that everyone projects their desires on. She was like the main character of a Dickens novel-passive. She is an amalgamation of other people’s standards and advice. I had no sense of who she was as a person. Even the career that she is passionate about was the priest’s idea. She is everyone’s favorite person because she is not overtly boy crazy and volunteered to feed homeless guys one holiday. She has two strong characteristics. She does not like the shopkeeper or one of the sulky girls that she rooms with. She is willing to do something extreme and against the grain if it suits her, but only for as long as it suits her, which leads to my third point.
Third, the main character is not a likable person, which is not a problem. I like awful characters, but I don’t like awful characters that every one coos and fawns over like they are terrific. She is boy crazy. Being boy crazy isn’t a bad thing, but she is clever enough not to seem that way and is actually kind of craven in the way that she treats the men in her life. If a guy pulled the crap that she did, he would be correctly derided as a dog. She steps into someone else’s life, which is understandable, but she seems to be mourning her poor timing as opposed to the person whom she lost.
Please don’t explain to me that I don’t get it. I know that the two men represent two very different ways of life that the main character must choose. I get that each choice is not perfect, and each choice has advantages and drawbacks. I get that it is completely human to wonder about the road not taken. I’m saying that Brooklyn takes it to the point where the character is unintentionally acting like a sociopath with little regard to others’ feelings and only thinking of herself.
Is Brooklyn so beloved because it presents the kind of woman that we want? The main character was malleable, quiet and pretty. She is simultaneously passive yet adventurous enough to get into situations that were morally dubious without taking any morally questionable actions. Oh look at me, I’m a poor little girl who is at the mercy of what every body wants from me, and nothing is my fault, but I’m a woman when it suits me. Brooklyn is a fantasy that sounds more like a nightmare to me.