In America: Review By moviegeek

Jim Sheridan's work, In America, is a seemingly ordinary movie about family struggles with immigration, that expands its own predestined borders to become something truly wonderful. Based on of the director's heartbreaking personal experiences, this movie is carried by some phenomenal acting and extraordinary storytelling.

The film follows an Irish family immigrating to America. While there they encounter the problems of finding work, financial crisis, and family trauma. In a junkie apartment, they find home. One of their neighbors is a frightening yelling man named Mateo (Djimon Honsou).

The story treads similar and familar ground; the storytelling does not.

In one key scene, we see the transition from what we had previously supposed about a character to an entirely different light. In this scene, the new information isn't just thrown in our face. The transition is heartbreaking and moving.

This is the same with the whole movie. It isn't blatant. It doesn't create a lexicon of dramatics that says, "BLAM! Dramatic scene here! Everything is going right, BLAM! Dramatics!" Instead we are on a journey with the characters that has no clear or definite path. It hasn't been scoped out to the point we can tell where it's going and at what pace. We simply care. We care about these characters and wish them the best, yet at the same time worried it may not turn out that way. I was satisfied with the movie before it was over because I was truly convinced by these characters, and, in the end, I knew that whatever the ending was, I would believe and accept it.

Jim Sheridan always does a wonderful job of directing his cast. From his work in My Left Foot to last year's Brothers (which is oddly reminiscent of this feature), the cast always shines, able to add a punch to the dramatic resilience. In this, the rather unknown actors (aside from possibly Djimon Honsou) have opportunity to show capabilities to immerse themselves into their characters.

This movie isn't perfect. It has a very enclosed feel to it. It seems to recycle a lot of old workable, routine plot devices and use them (wonderfully, of course). But it is moving. It feels real. It's inhabited not by actors and drama, but by real people and true passion. The simplest of scenes, like one with a silly carnival game with a high financial stake, is tense not because of the stakes, but because we wish the best for this family whose ordeals and heartbreak are tangible and real.