In America: Critic Reviews

[Sheridan] stages it with a deft specificity and understatement.

Thanks to Jim Sheridan's graceful, scrupulously sincere direction and the dry intelligence of his cast, In America is likely to pierce the defenses of all but the most dogmatically cynical viewers.

Jim Sheridan's sentimental heartwarmer of a story about an immigrant Irish family in modern New York is frankly manipulative and contrived.

A classic story of losing and finding faith told with heart, humor and emotional heft.

It is kept watchable and empathetic by the energy of the superb performances and the sense of complete freshness.

A big little movie, a fictionalized memoir that transcends the personal to become universal -- its grubby verve touched with a sense of wonder and magic, its mundane actions given an all-too-rare spiritual resonance.

Lesson-laden, tear-jerking fairy tale.

Like a kid playing make-believe, In America is blithely confident of its own contrivances; it only benefits from a certain unselfconscious naivete.

The casting of real-life sisters Sarah and Emma Bolger is the stroke that gives In America its buoyancy.

Deeply moving and funny.

If the film is manipulative, at least it's subtly manipulative.

Jim Sheridan's In America doesn't just tear at the heart strings. It rips them out, cuts them up, sets the pieces on fire and pours cold water on the ashes.

At its best, the movie has a supernal glow that you can practically warm your hands by.

It is perceptive about the countless ways in which it is hard to be poor and a stranger in a new land.

Sheridan's labor of love becomes a testament to love, presenting the triumph of spirit over circumstances.

The result is a blend of kitchen-sink and magical realism: sentimental, but well acted and freshly observed.

A wondrously emotional film, one that sneakily dismantles your defenses and purges grief you didn't realize you had.

The love that permeates every frame of this comic drama quickly makes it apparent that this is something dear to the filmmakers' hearts.

Has a simple, undeniable power.

A genuine, refreshing film about embracing life's challenges and rewards.

Redeemed by the joyousness of family life that Mr. Sheridan captures from his agile and resourceful foursome.

Insightful, joyous and positively heart-stopping.

A sweetly benign look at the immigrant experience.

It's a wistful yet penetrating film, shot through with magic realism and life-affirming humor, that gets you deep down where you live.

One of the two or three best movies of the year, In America is easily the most emotionally satisfying.