Brooklyn 2015

Lindsey Bahr, Associated Press: Brooklyn is a story for anyone who has ever left home. It's a story for those who've waffled in indecision, for those forming their identities and forging their own paths. And it's one of the loveliest films to grace cinemas this year. Read more

Lou Lumenick, New York Post: An awards-caliber performance by Saoirse Ronan, as a shy and awkward Irish immigrant who struggles to fit in when she arrives in the Borough of Churches in 1952. Read more

Kyle Smith, New York Post: It's the sweet sincerity of "Brooklyn" that stamps it as both refreshing and nostalgic. The film is as welcome as a photo you just discovered of your mother before you were born, in which she looks prettier than you ever imagined. Read more

Rex Reed, New York Observer: Brooklyn is an elegant testament to the dream of first experience, relatable to everyone, regardless of where you're from-elevated to no small degree by the blue emerald eyes and creamy complexion of its star ... Read more

Peter Debruge, Variety: Saoirse Ronan shines, but relative newcomer Emory Cohen is the true breakout in this tale of a young woman torn between two men on opposite sides of the Atlantic. Read more

Noel Murray, AV Club: This is an old-fashioned entertainment, but one so masterfully crafted and heartfelt that it's hard not to love. Read more

Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic: This is a deceptively complex story, arriving in the guise of simplicity. And what drives it is Ronan's beautiful performance. Read more

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: A cinematic snow-globe of nostalgia, a portrait of two worlds that aches with family lost and freedoms found. It is a beautiful film to experience. Read more

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: The film is suffused with the sense that a person is just about to bloom. Read more

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: It's one of the most satisfying films of 2015. Read more

Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: I hesitate to call Brooklyn heartwarming because that usually implies something overweeningly tender. But it's possible to be heartwarming and tough-minded, as this wonderful film demonstrates. And it's possible to be both old-fashioned and vibrant, too. Read more

Cary Darling, Fort Worth Star-Telegram/DFW.com: Big, romantic and as sweet as wedding cake, Brooklyn is a bi-continental love story that proudly wears its heart on its well-crafted sleeve. Read more

Chris Nashawaty, Entertainment Weekly: Although Brooklyn is technically a love story, it's unfair to stop there. It's about discovering who you are regardless of where you find yourself. Read more

Todd McCarthy, Hollywood Reporter: A superb, emotionally turbulent account of a young Irishwoman's attempt to become an American in the early 1950s. Read more

Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times: A godsend for audiences who hunger for rich emotion presented with wit, grace and not a trace of sentimentality, "Brooklyn" illustrates the power of restraint in dealing with poignant, impassioned material. Read more

Connie Ogle, Miami Herald: With compassion, a touch of melancholy and a sense of wonder, Brooklyn reveals the profound truths in a simple, familiar story, ending on a note that's achingly bittersweet, no matter where you're from. Read more

Elaine Teng, The New Republic: Brooklyn appeals as a love triangle, with charming, old-timey romances befitting the era it depicts, but it's more powerful as a story of one young woman's identity. Read more

Ella Taylor, NPR: It's a measure of her power and of the spell cast by this lovely movie that for hours, maybe days after you leave the theater, you'll want to stick around and find out what's around the corner for this now voyager. Read more

Stephen Whitty, New York Daily News: There's great humor and touching, tentative romance. And gradually the film turns its very specific story of one immigrant into a moving group portrait. Read more

A.O. Scott, New York Times: Ms. Ronan uses everything - her posture, her eyebrows, her breath, her teeth, her pores - to convey a process of change that is both seismic and subtle. Read more

Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer: Brooklyn is that rare period drama that doesn't lose itself in its dogged re-creation of another time. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: Although not without moments of sadness and tragedy, Brooklyn is sublimely uplifting and life affirming. Read more

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: Saoirse Ronan lights up the screen in the year's best and most beguiling love story. The surprise is that it also goes deeper, sadder and truer. Read more

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: Ronan, in every scene of the film, creates a reserved young woman who seems to mature before our eyes, quietly revealing Eilis' open, yearning heart. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: Something in the richness of its relationships puts an essential truth before us - the brevity and immensity of life. We know all about that, of course, but that's the beauty of great art: It takes what you already know and makes you feel it. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: "Brooklyn" builds a touching, moving, crowd-pleasing delight from quiet, unassuming material. Read more

Calvin Wilson, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: If you think they don't make movies like they used to, "Brooklyn" is glorious proof to the contrary. Read more

David Sims, The Atlantic: This could feel like an airport romance novel about a girl whose life is transformed by love, but Ronan complicates Eilis's otherwise simple story arc as much as she can. Read more

James Adams, Globe and Mail: Fans of the novel, of which I'm one, may find the film sweeter and more romantic than Toibin's original conception. Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: Brooklyn is a simple story affectingly told, bridging the emotional gulf one feels when ambition and home are an ocean apart and love is uncertain in either place. Read more

Alonso Duralde, TheWrap: It's certainly a compliment to director John Crowley and screenwriter Nick Hornby (adapting the novel by Colm Toibin) that the film calls to mind Steven Spielberg and even John Ford in its willingness to commit to the grand gesture. Read more

Joshua Rothkopf, Time Out: Its beating heart is 21-year-old Saoirse Ronan, once the bright-eyed teen from Atonement but now, on evidence here, the most quietly expressive actor of her generation. Read more

Liz Braun, Toronto Sun: It's such a beautiful film. Read more

Mara Reinstein, Us Weekly: It's a witty, dreamy love letter to independence and self-discovery - no matter where you call home. Read more

Nick Schager, Village Voice: Saoirse Ronan makes a grand case for herself as the millennial generation's finest leading lady in Brooklyn, an immaculately crafted, immensely moving character study about a 1950s immigrant struggling to find her place in the world. Read more

David Edelstein, New York Magazine/Vulture: Brooklyn doesn't quite capture Brooklyn, but its ambivalence about being Irish is gloriously epic. Read more

Ann Hornaday, Washington Post: "Brooklyn" may be unapologetically old-fashioned, but it's also utterly of its time. Read more

Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: It summons up a full life in a fable about happiness-pursuing it, achieving it. And bestowing it; the film made me happy too. Read more

Will Leitch, The New Republic: I could have hung out with everyone in Brooklyn for hours: It's a world you won't want to leave. Read more