Brooklyn Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.5
Overall		4.0

Brooklyn Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman March 16, 2016

Though they were released some seventy years apart, the somewhat similarly named A Tree Grows in Brooklyn and Brooklyn share at least a couple of other correspondences aside from their titles. Both films document a (largely) female perspective and both have a rather potent subtext dealing with Irish immigration. It’s notable that 1945’s A Tree Grows in Brooklyn dealt with Irish immigrants who had arrived in the early part of the 20th century, while 2015’s Brooklyn is a somewhat more contemporary tale (taking place in fact just a few years after A Tree Grows in Brooklyn would have been hitting movie theaters), suggesting that the struggle for people trying to assimilate into the United States and find some semblance of the American Dream is an ongoing enterprise. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn and Brooklyn also share a rather quiet, introspective demeanor, one which favors character development over overt histrionics, which is not to say that neither film has moments of emotional overload. But Brooklyn is perhaps especially notable for how quiet it often is, a proclivity which might have been more understandable had it come out back in 1945, but which in the often noisy, bustling environment of the 21st century can seem positively retro at times. Bolstered by a lovely and Academy Award nominated performance by Saoirse Ronan, Brooklyn might be dismissed by some as typical Art House fare, which would cheat those people, for the film is in fact emotionally compelling and surprisingly involving despite its apparent small scale ambience.

The simplicity of Brooklyn is undeniable, but it’s also something that tends to work in the film’s favor—at least most of the time. Things start out not in that borough a bit east and south of Manhattan, but instead in Ireland, where a young lass named Eilis (Saoirse Ronan) works at a shop in the village of Enniscorthy. (The film is based on the bestselling novel of the same name by Colm Tóibín who is a native of Enniscorthy, and as the commentary by director John Crowley mentions, the real life town was used for location work for this early part of the story.) The shop is run by a harridan woman named Miss Kelly (Bríd Brennan), the sort of woman who berates a customer for trying to buy shoe polish on Sunday, a product Kelly feels is best purchased on a non-holy day. When Eilis reluctantly tells Miss Kelly that she’s “away to America”, Kelly responds with a curt dismissal of any further need for Eilis’ services (i.e., in the interim before she actuall leaves), while also offering a parting shot of good, old fashioned Catholic guilt that Eilis’ departure will mean that Eilis’ older sister Rose (Fiona Glascott) will spend the rest of her life caring for the girls’ aging mother.

The bond between Rose and Eilis is beautifully detailed in a brief scene documenting Eilis’ packing for her upcoming trip. Rose in fact is responsible for Eilis’ change of fortunes, for she took it upon herself to contact a priest in the United States named Father Flood (Jim Broadbent) who has arranged not just for Eilis’ passage to America, but also for her employment at a department store and her residence at a boarding house run by a feisty spinster named Miss Kehoe (Julie Walters). The trip across the Atlantic is fraught with more than a little seasickness, but Eilis is at least mentored by a more experienced Irish traveler who advises the young woman to be happy she’s finally escaping a village where everyone knows her business.

Eilis may be set up physically in the new world, but she’s an emotional basket case, as a quasi-montage detailing her homesick letters back to Rose document. Her inherently shy demeanor doesn’t make her a natural saleswoman at her job, either, leading to a bit of a showdown with her floor supervisor Miss Fortini (Jessica Paré). At the Kehoe boarding house, Eilis also has to deal with the snarkiness of some of her housemates, albeit under the watchful eye of Kehoe herself, who does not suffer rudeness gladly. When Miss Kehoe insists that Eilis chaperone new arrival Dolores (Jenn Murray) to a weekly dance held at the parish, Eilis, ever the accommodator, complies. That leads to a meeting with a handsome young Italian man named Tony Fiorello (Emory Cohen), who confesses to Eilis that he loves Irish girls and doesn’t like some of the social aspects of large Italian gatherings.

A somewhat formulaic but still quite touching romance ensues, where Tony brings Eilis home to meet his boisterous family (including a bratty little brother who attempts to wreak havoc by discussing the family’s anti-Irish prejudices). Meanwhile, Eilis aces a bookkeeping course the kindly Father Flood arranges for her to take, and seems to be moving toward a conventional happy ending with Tony. Without posting any overt spoilers, a certain tragedy intervenes which causes Eilis to have to rethink her priorities, though her emotional attachment to Tony leads to an unexpected “solution”, which in turn is followed by some more overtly melodramatic events.

Brooklyn works up considerable emotion, though it’s notable that some of the most potent effects in this regard tend to spring from quieter, more intimate moments rather than what some may feel are overly contrived plot machinations in the film’s second half. The film also tends to gloss over events a bit too quickly at times, though in this case that tendency is more prevalent in the film’s first half. The whole evolution of Eilis from wallflower shut-in to radiant love interest and (not so coincidentally) status as one of the “popular girls” at the boarding house is probably too conveniently handled to develop any deep seated responses. What keeps the film’s emotional tether to the audience strong, however, is the beautifully realized relationship between Eilis and Tony and (perhaps to a lesser extent) Eilis and Rose.

Brooklyn never aims for any hyperbolic outbursts and in fact derives almost all of its power from the almost deliberately interior, tamped down emotions that are so often on display. Ronan does beautiful work within the “simple” milieu of the film, and is matched by the large and often quite colorful supporting cast. There’s an appealing freshness to this story, despite its at times very familiar tropes, a testament to both the lived in feeling of Nick Hornby’s adaptive screenplay and the evocative helming of director John Crowley. It may be simple coincidence that one touching scene finds Eilis walking down a picturesque Brooklyn street where she gazes at a tree that A Tree Grows in Brooklyn’s Francie Nolan might have admired decades previously.

Brooklyn Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Brooklyn is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. Director John Crowley and cinematographer Yves Bélanger offer a probably romanticized view of things throughout the film, with (as Crowley mentions in his commentary) more of a handheld ambience in the early going in Ireland which then gives way to a somewhat more traditional approach as the story segues to America. There are some overtly theatrical moments here, as in Eilis' exit from the immigration check-in (see screenshot 5), elements where whites are pushed to blooming levels and detail is understandably compromised. A couple of short scenes which look like they were green screened (notably a ship's deck scene) are noticeably softer than the bulk of the presentation. These passing anomalies aside, the rest of this presentation is beautifully precise looking, with excellent detail and fine detail levels. The film has rather refreshingly not been color graded to within an inch of its life, and though there is occasional dowdiness on display in certain locales, there are exciting pops of natural looking color, especially when events venture out of doors in brightly lit conditions. Despite what I personally feel is the Arri's tendency toward murkiness in less brightly lit scenes, shadow detail throughout the film is quite commendable. There are no issues with image instability and no egregious compression problems.

Brooklyn Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Brooklyn's lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track doesn't have any really big moments to display overwhelming surround activity, but the track is nonetheless quite effective on its own smaller scale terms. Little moments like some evocative Irish rainfall that Eilis and a girlfriend walk through early in the film, or a noisy sequence at Coney Island once Eilis has made it to America offer substantial immersion and good placement of individual ambient environmental effects. A charming and understated score by Michael Brook often wafts quite evocatively through the surround channels as well. There are a couple of musical moments, as in the dance where Eilis and Tony meet, where music offers some decent immersion. Dialogue is cleanly presented and is well prioritized on this problem free track.

Brooklyn Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Deleted and Extended Scenes (1080p; 9:37) offer optional commentary by John Crowley.


• Promotional Featurettes:

  The Story (1080p; 3:28)

  Home (1080p; 3:01)

  Love (1080p; 2:58)

  Cast (1080p; 4:07)

  The Making of Brooklyn (1080p; 3:37)

  Book to Screen (1080p; 4:00)

• Audio Commentary by John Crowley


• Gallery (1080p; 2:05) offers both an Auto Advance and a Manual Advance option. The timing is for the Auto Advance option.


• Theatrical Trailer (1080p; 2:27)

Brooklyn Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

If Brooklyn is perhaps a bit too facile at times, it is nonetheless an often hugely engaging experience, one which beautifully recreates a specific era and which offers some real feeling emotions for its characters. Ronan is superb in an understated role, and the large supporting cast has a number of memorable turns. This is a "little" film which still manages to deliver some pretty large emotions. Highly recommended.