Premise: An Irish immigrant family moves to New York City and gets used to their new life there.
The thing about In America is that it's a sentimental movie and it has no interest in hiding it. It's a modest American Dream movie that is happy to stay uncomplicated. I get why some people have very strong feelings about it. The central family is well cast. I love whenever real siblings are used in a movie. It's hard to get authentic child performances, so Sarah and Emma Bolger being actual sisters is a nice cheat code of sorts.
It all does feel a little sanitized. The Irish immigrant experience isn't the one I'm worried about being perilous in 2000s America. Their apartment building of drug addicts feels surprisingly unthreatening. And Djimon Hounsou dips his toes into "magical negro" waters. There's room for criticism here, although I think the film isn't trying to disguise that it's opting for a rosier view of its story than it could.
I like that it's only 1h45m but feels longer in the good way. Like how Clueless or Ladybird are short but cover a lot. In America is almost episodic. Sarah Bogler's narration keeps pushing the story forward so it never gets too bogged down in the details. I just keep coming back to this is a pleasant movie.
Verdict: Weakly Recommend
No comments:
Post a Comment