Brooklyn showcases a number of appealing ingredients, but ultimately lacks an adequate story to prop them up.
Brooklyn
✭ ✭ ✭ ✭ Read critic reviews
United Kingdom, Canada, Ireland · 2015
Rated PG-13 · 1h 51m
Director John Crowley
Starring Saoirse Ronan, Domhnall Gleeson, Emory Cohen, Jim Broadbent
Genre Drama, Romance
Add to Watchlist
Please login to add films to your watchlist.
Eilis Lacey, a young Irishwoman, emigrates to the US in the early 1950s to find employment. After she starts to build a life for herself there, family obligations call her back to her hometown and she must choose where she wants to forge her future.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
The movement of the story—from wrenching homesickness to blooming confidence and a smile on one’s stroll to work—elevates the movie into universal urban poetry.
The Guardian by Peter Bradshaw
Without Ronan’s performance, Brooklyn might have left a sugary taste. But she is the ingredient that brings everything together: her calm poise anchors almost every scene and every shot.
A robust romantic drama, rich in history and full of emotion, Brooklyn fills a niche in which the studios once specialized, using a well-read and respected novel as the grounds for a tenderly observed tearjerker.
A heartbreaking and poignant story about choices, country, commitments, sacrifice, and love, Brooklyn is a superb, luminous, and bittersweet portrayal of who we are, where we’ve come from, where we’re going, and the places we call home.
The star of Brooklyn is Fiona Weir – not a person who appears on screen at any stage, but the woman who cast it.
The Hollywood Reporter by Todd McCarthy
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.
Users who liked this film also liked
Never Let Me Go
These students have everything they need. Except time.
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- United Kingdom, United States • 2010
- Director Mark Romanek
- Cast Carey Mulligan, Keira Knightley, Andrew Garfield, Charlotte Rampling, Sally Hawkins, Nathalie Richard
- Genre Drama, Romance, Science Fiction
- Available on Apple TV, Google Play Movies, Fandango At Home, Amazon Video, Microsoft Store, YouTube, AMC on Demand
How I Live Now
An American girl on holiday in the English countryside must fight for her survival when war breaks out.
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- United Kingdom • 2013
- Director Kevin Macdonald
- Cast Saoirse Ronan, George MacKay, Tom Holland, Harley Bird, Danny McEvoy, Anna Chancellor
- Genre Action, Drama, Thriller, War
- Available on Amazon Prime Video, Hulu, fuboTV, Peacock Premium, Peacock Premium Plus, Amazon Prime Video with Ads, Apple TV, Google Play Movies, Fandango At Home, Amazon Video, Microsoft Store, YouTube, FlixFling, Crackle, Tubi TV, Pluto TV, Kanopy, Hoopla, Plex, Plex Channel
Suffragette
Mothers. Daughters. Rebels.
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- United Kingdom, France • 2015
- Director Sarah Gavron
- Cast Carey Mulligan, Helena Bonham Carter, Brendan Gleeson, Anne-Marie Duff, Meryl Streep, Ben Whishaw
- Genre Drama, History
- Available on Apple TV, Google Play Movies, Fandango At Home, Amazon Video, Microsoft Store, YouTube, Spectrum On Demand
Carol
Some people change your life forever.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- United Kingdom, United States • 2015
- Director Todd Haynes
- Cast Rooney Mara, Cate Blanchett, Kyle Chandler, Sarah Paulson, Jake Lacy, John Magaro
- Genre Romance, Drama
- Available on Netflix, fuboTV, Paramount+ Amazon Channel, Paramount+ Roku Premium Channel, Paramount+ with Showtime, Paramount Plus Apple TV Channel , Apple TV, Google Play Movies, Fandango At Home, Amazon Video, Microsoft Store, YouTube, Spectrum On Demand, AMC on Demand
Room
A young mother raises her 5-year-old son in captivity and struggles to answer his mounting questions.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Ireland, Canada, United Kingdom • 2015
- Director Lenny Abrahamson
- Cast Brie Larson, Jacob Tremblay, Joan Allen, William H. Macy, Sean Bridgers, Tom McCamus
- Genre Drama, Thriller
- Available on Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Netflix basic with Ads, Amazon Prime Video with Ads, Apple TV, Google Play Movies, Fandango At Home, Amazon Video, Microsoft Store, YouTube, Kanopy
The Martian
During a manned mission to Mars, Astronaut Mark Watney is presumed dead after a fierce storm and abandoned by his crew.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- United Kingdom, United States • 2015
- Director Ridley Scott
- Cast Matt Damon, Jessica Chastain, Kristen Wiig, Jeff Daniels, Michael Peña, Sean Bean
- Genre Adventure, Drama, Science Fiction
- Available on Max Amazon Channel, Max, Apple TV, Google Play Movies, Fandango At Home, Amazon Video, Microsoft Store, YouTube, AMC on Demand
Bridge of Spies
An American lawyer is charged with defending a Soviet spy and negotiating his exchange for an American hostage in the USSR.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Germany, India, United States • 2015
- Director Steven Spielberg
- Cast Tom Hanks, Mark Rylance, Amy Ryan, Alan Alda, Sebastian Koch, Austin Stowell
- Genre Thriller, Drama
- Available on Apple TV, Google Play Movies, Fandango At Home, Amazon Video, Microsoft Store, YouTube, AMC on Demand
A Royal Night Out
On V-E Day in 1945, Princesses Margaret and Elizabeth defect their chaperones and sneak off for a wild evening in London.
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- United Kingdom • 2015
- Director Julian Jarrold
- Cast Sarah Gadon, Bel Powley, Emily Watson, Rupert Everett, Mark Hadfield, Jack Laskey
- Genre Comedy, Drama, Romance
- Available on Amazon Prime Video, Starz, Starz Roku Premium Channel, Starz Amazon Channel, Starz Apple TV Channel, Amazon Prime Video with Ads, Apple TV, Google Play Movies, Fandango At Home, Amazon Video, YouTube, Hoopla
The Danish Girl
When Gerda asks her husband, Einar, to fill in as a portrait model, Einar discovers the person she's meant to be.
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- United Kingdom, United States, Germany • 2015
- Director Tom Hooper
- Cast Eddie Redmayne, Alicia Vikander, Matthias Schoenaerts, Ben Whishaw, Sebastian Koch, Pip Torrens
- Genre Drama
- Available on Apple TV, Google Play Movies, Fandango At Home, Amazon Video, Microsoft Store, YouTube, Spectrum On Demand, AMC on Demand
The Lady in the Van
A mostly true story
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- United Kingdom • 2015
- Director Nicholas Hytner
- Cast Maggie Smith, Alex Jennings, Frances de la Tour, Gwen Taylor, Dominic Cooper, James Corden
- Genre Comedy, Drama
- Available on Apple TV, Google Play Movies, Fandango At Home, Amazon Video, YouTube, Spectrum On Demand, AMC on Demand
Amy
An intimate and delicate portrait of Amy Winehouse's rise to fame.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- United Kingdom • 2015
- Director Asif Kapadia
- Cast Amy Winehouse, Mark Ronson, Tony Bennett, Pete Doherty, Blake Fielder
- Genre Documentary
- Available on Apple TV, Google Play Movies, Fandango At Home, Amazon Video, Microsoft Store, YouTube, Kanopy
On Chesil Beach
Is this what people do?
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- United Kingdom • 2018
- Director Dominic Cooke
- Cast Saoirse Ronan, Billy Howle, Anne-Marie Duff, Adrian Scarborough, Emily Watson, Bebe Cave
- Genre Drama
- Available on Max Amazon Channel, Max, Apple TV, Google Play Movies, Fandango At Home, Amazon Video, YouTube, Spectrum On Demand, AMC on Demand, Kanopy, Hoopla
Absolutely delightful. This story is heartbreakingly real even to this day for people who have to choose between their new country and their old. Ellis is played wonderfully by Saoirse Ronan, and the cinematography is absolutely beautiful.
Every performance in this film is pitch perfect, and the screenplay is incredibly well-balanced with just enough joy and just enough sorrow to make the viewing experience captivating and rewarding.
Saoirse Ronan is, as always, excellent. The film as a whole is heartbreaking, and sweet, and delightful all at once.
Brooklyn is a really lovely and touching film that follows Ellis Lacey's journey from Ireland to America. This film includes one of Saoirse Ronan's best performances, with her heart broken by loss and torn between the comfort of home and the hope and possibilities of a new environment.
Incredibly earnest and human. Saoirse Ronan is a powerhouse in everything that she is in, but this performance of hers, in particular, remains a standout. Very excited for John Crowley's next film, as his direction within the romance genre adds so much to the story.