In America
by Jim Sheridan
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DVD details
Actor: Djimon Hounsou, Emma Bolger, Paddy Considine, Samantha Morton, Sarah BolgerDirector: Jim Sheridan
Brand: MORTON,SAMANTHA
Producer: Nye Heron
Producer: Jim Sheridan
Writer: Jim Sheridan
Producer: Arthur Lappin
Producer: Meredith Zamsky
Writer: Kirsten Sheridan
Writer: Naomi Sheridan
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 5.1; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 5.1; French (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; Spanish (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; French (Dubbed), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; Spanish (Dubbed), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround
Format: Anamorphic, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.85:1
Running Time: 105 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2004-05-11
Audience Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: 20th Century Fox
DVD Reviews of In America
DVD Review: Heartbreaker!
Summary: 5 Stars
Few films paint a more uplifting and poignant picture of what the American dream can be, should be, than Jim Sheridan's heartwrenching masterpiece, 'In America.' Nor are there many films out there that will open up the tear gates and yet leave you smiling like this one does.
Jim Sheridan set out to make a tight, precise story that would resonate with many. He succeeded in a very big way. 'In America' hits all the marks of a great film. It entertains you, it moves you, it educates you. You come away bleeding, but all the better for it nonetheless.
Sheridan doesn't waste time. The first scene gives you the crux. The Sullivan family waits in their packed station wagon to cross the Canadian border into America. Why? To repeat the journey that all our ancestors went through. To forget something over 'there' in hopes of starting something better and brighter over 'here.' The Sullivans' secret from over there bubbles out during the customs check. When the border guard asks the father, Johnny (Paddy Considine) how many children they have, he stares blankly ahead and says, 'three.' Sarah (Samantha Morton) quickly corrects him, 'two.' Their youngest, Frankie, died from a brain tumor, but his ghost torments the whole family. Was it really a tumor or was it that fall down the stairs that could have been prevented? Unresolved guilt hovers over the parents like a phantom, while their angelic girls, Christy and Ariel (Emma and Sarah Bolger) accept their brother's loss as part of the scheme of things.
Starting over is full of new challenges, new joys and new pains. Johnny and family move into a dingy tenement full of equally dingy characters. But it is the little things that keep the coals of faith burning. The first cold shower in a humid NYC summer, the ratty air-conditioner that Johnny drags across town to cool family and frustrations, the ice-cream sundaes, the family jaunts to the cinema (cooler than the apartment!), and all the while, Johnny struggles to find his place on the Broadway stage (How American is that!). All tiny steps through the passage of rebirth.
The costs are high and failure lurks everywhere. Johnny meets rejection after rejection and finally ends up cabbing. With her sparkling candor, Ariel voices the disappointment that plagues her family, 'Things aren't the same here. I don't have any friends. And you, dad, don't play with us anymore.' Things are indeed different as Johnny and Sarah struggle to make ends meet and to put the ghost of Frankie behind them. Sarah becomes pregnant with their new child, a promise of a better future. Yet, Johnny can't accept this new future because he hasn't let the past go. His pent-up guilt and frozen pain have congealed in him, turning him into a robot of frayed nerves and cold distance. Sarah senses the source of Johnny's failure and tries to pull it out of him. When Johnny half-heartedly touches Sarah's growing stomach, she explodes, 'You can't touch the thing you've created, and that's why you can't create something that will touch others!' In trying to survive and keep his family afloat, Johnny nearly loses his humanity.
Yet, the Sullivans' are saved just in time by their odd neighbor, Mateo (Dijimon Hounsou). An African artist locked up in his wounds and loneliness, he paints with his own blood and frightens the whole tenement with his violent screams. Christy and Ariel break into his world unawares. In one of the film's numerous poignant scenes, they stop at his door for their first trick-or-treat and won't be denied. Knock and you shall receive. Two alien worlds crash together and a bond is forged. The Sullivans' find their first 'American' friend and Mateo begins to venture out from his locked world. And all this, the doing of Christy and Ariel. They sense a fellow wounded heart in Mateo, yet one capable of extraordinary love. Johnny has his doubts about this freakish neighbor, until Mateo gives him a lesson in being grateful for what he has. And then it's all downhill to a mighty bang. The baby's coming and the pregnancy is not without risk...Mateo passes out in the stairwell and his frig is full of medicine...
The pace quickens into a crescendo that is guaranteed to leave you wet-eyed. Resolution, sacrifice, salvation and the continuance of life. They're all there. Waiting to be discovered. A lot has already been said about the superb acting in this film, and it's all true. Not a bad apple in the bunch. While the adults all do fine work, the prize must go to the Bolger sisters. Ariel's impish innocence and Christy's maturity beyond her years will leave you glued. That's not acting, it simply being yourself before the camera.
More than the heart-wrenching and stellar performances, its the little stuff that Sheridan sneaks into each scene that trips you up. Some many things to identify with, to make your own. Ariel's honest query, 'But where did ET go?,' the girls first Halloween contest, 'We got a prize only because we were different. I don't want to be different anymore!' and the family's first trip to an amusement park where Johnny must win the ball-throwing contest even if it means sacrificing their last dollar. So much that touches us on a human level, so much about what it means to be American. A nation of 'losers,' drifters who must 'lose' something, sacrifice something in order to win it all back and more. Take a chance on this film, I guarantee you won't fail to find something new and wonderful, 'In America.'
Description of In America
An Irish illegal immigrant family tries to adjust to life in New York City.Genre: Feature Film-Drama
Rating: PG13
Release Date: 7-JUN-2005
Media Type: DVD
In America stars the incandescent Samantha Morton and Paddy Considine as two young Irish parents who have lost their only son. Trying to run away from their grief, they move (illegally) to a junkie-infested apartment building in New York City with their two daughters, Christy (Sarah Bolger) and Ariel (Emma Bolger). Though they struggle with meager jobs and suffocatingly hot weather, a friendship with an artist in an apartment below them (Djimon Hounsou, Gladiator) becomes a catalyst that allows them to rebuild their family. In America is splendidly acted throughout--of particular note are the two girls, real-life sisters whose on-screen charisma is clearly a family trait. But it's Morton who anchors the movie; her every emotion seems to glow from her skin. The commitment of the actors keeps the movie compelling, despite some dangerously sentimental patches. --Bret Fetzer
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