User Reviews

Johnny (Paddy Considine), Sarah (Samantha Morton), Christy (Sarah Bolger) and Ariel (Emma Bolger) are a catholic Irish family, looking for a better life in America. They lost their beloved son and brother Frankie in an accident, and the family, specially Johnny and Sarah, is traumatized with his death. Johnny tries to find a job as an actor, but he lost his emotions and feelings with the death of Frankie and can not find a job, working as a taxi driver to support his family. Without any money, they move to a junkie building, where they become friend of Mateo (Djimon Hounsou), an African painter who has a serious disease, apparently AIDS. Their lives change and Johnny and Sarah learn to face and heal their wounds with the arrival of the baby and the friendship of Mateo.

"In America" is a magnificent and very positive tale of friendship and survival. The story is very simple and dramatic, but never corny, and the very convincing performance of the cast is amazing and touching. Jim Sheridan was able to direct the six years old Emma Bolger and achieve an outstanding performance in the role of Ariel. Her eleven years old sister, Sarah Bolger, has also a stunning dramatic and key role in the story. I dare to write that two stars are born! Summarizing, "In America" is a highly recommended touching, powerful, sensitive, positive and magnificent movie. My vote is nine.

Title (Brazil): "Terra dos Sonhos" ("Land of the Dreams")

The story is if a family running away from a tragedy. They find a tenement in a big city and try to survive. They do okay. Then through a neighbor who has AIDS and a new baby they learn to face their problem.

I read some of the comments of others. They all seem to be negative. I really enjoyed it. My family and I were riveted the whole time. I saw neither inconsistencies nor over melodrama. That is, I saw no more that in any other movies. All movies are just snapshots and almost all are lies. This one is no more or less in that regard. It was a melodrama about over coming tragedy. It communicated to me.

The actors were realistic. I especially enjoyed the girls. I also enjoy seeing

Sorry for you naysayers. You are just picking the nits from the nats.

At the beginning of the movie "In America", the Irish immigrants can't wait to get out of Canada and into the "land of opportunity". Of course, America is the land of exploitation and rip-offs as the movie clearly shows. The carny who entices the family to spend their rent on a toy is an adequate symbol. Later, when the family gets the medical bill that's in the 5 digit range, I as a Canadian am appalled that people would leave a country that has free medicare to move to the U.S.A.. If they lived in a country where basic things like child birth are provided by hospitals free of charge, they would not need to rely on magical wishes and voodoo men to save them from poverty. God bless Tommy Douglas, our Mateo. The immigrants in "IN American" should have stayed "IN CANADA".

This is a story about an Irish family who leaves Canada to live in America in New York City. the father has aspirations of being an actor but gets a job as a cab driver. The mother works in an ice cream parlor. The family suffered the loss of their two year old son about a year ago, and the father still has many issues with it.

They learn they are going to have another baby, and befriend a neighbor, who is dying. At first, he is very angry but hanging out with the Irish family helps him.

One of the big plot issues deals with how poor the family is. But, after they get their apartment in the crack house, they have the money to buy paint and decorate. That made no sense. Plus Kristy has her own video camera and they manage to send two kids to Catholic school. Where is all this money coming from. Also, the dad wastes rent money in order to win an E.T. doll. No wonder they are poor because people with no money usually have none because they don't know how to handle it. And in the end we learn Mateo had some money. Then why is he living his final days in a crack house. And what really is unbelievable is the parents let their 2 girls walk around on the streets alone and bang on their neighbors' doors in the crack house.

Then at the end out of the blue, some neighbors show up to attend a party for the baby. Why were they never shown earlier. Plus they all look nice and well dressed but live in a crack house. What gives?

FINAL VERDICT: It was an interesting story and original. Some parts were unrealistic, but what movie isn't like that now days. So if you like dramas, I recommend it.

The 8.1 average for this film is almost as absurd as the film itself. I must say my girlfriend rented the video and I didn't have high hopes - it had a small girl on the front cover which normally doesn't bode well - but nevertheless I really tried to give it a chance. The problem was that while this film was intended to make me cry I have to shamefully admit that once or twice I actually found myself laughing at the sheer ludicrousness of it all. The desperate Irish family sneaking into America after the loss of their son - in the 1850s I might have believed it, but in 1985...why? How about the hilarious African music that played whenever Mateo appeared on the screen or the fact that this caged animal turned from lion to pussy cat after one knock on his door. And the fact that he was in the far advanced stages of AIDS yet had a strong, musclebound body that features in adverts for growth steroids. And I am not a medical man but I am sure that you can't get a brain tumour from falling down the stairs. I could cope with these absurdities if the film had been redeeming in any way, but the number of needless clichés in the film just ruined any hopes it may have had about trying to explore the nature and feelings surrounding the death of a child. Clichés like the smiling and cheery black waitress, the tramp with a heart of gold, the heartless hospital clerk clocking up the five figure childbirth bill, the idea of one life ending as another is beginning. At the end the family were even gazing wistfully at the moon. From start to finish this film was farcical. And while I have every sympathy with the fact that the film was made, that does not make the film worth watching.

This film has probably the best acting I've seen in a long time! Each of the family of 4 play their roles perfectly to deliver a gripping, breathtaking and heartwarming film.

The film shows the struggles of a poor family dealing with the loss of their son/brother. Showing the struggles of money has been seen in many films before, recently "the pursuit of happiness". I think this film delivers it in an accurate way without becoming a sob story.

One of the best scenes in the film is when the family are at the fairground, one of the girls asks for an ET teddy which can be won on one of the stalls. This scene is gripping as the father tries to win the ET teddy for his youngest daughter, you can see the pain going through the fathers face as he tries to prove himself to his daughter as the dollars are rushing away from him. It makes quite simply brilliant viewing.

I also thought it was great to see the father show his lack of faith in God since losing his son. When the two daughters ask him to kneel and pray, and he refuses. You can see just how much he has lost his faith in God, a great scene.

The connection between the father and eldest daughter during the final scene was excellently heartwarming, it showed everything the film was all about in one powerful scene. Pure genius! 9/10 Paddy Considine is one of the best actors i have seen on film this year, with "In America" and "Dead Mans Shoes". I simply great actor.

Heartwarming movie about an Irish family who emigrates to the U.S. in order to find happiness, a better future for their children and above all to get over the death of their son Frankie. The story is told from the point of view of the eldest daughter Christy. The movie starts when the family crosses the American border. What follows is the struggle that comes with starting up a new life as a lower class Irish family.

'In America' is a wonderful movie with a touching story and outstanding acting performances. Paddy Considine was the only one who was a bit disappointing, although he wasn't bad at all. Samantha Morton was excellent and very believable as a strong Irish mother. Djimon Hounsou was truly amazing. It's hard to describe how good his acting was! Although his role wasn't that big, he has made quite an impression on me. Personally, I loved the following two scenes the most. First there was the scene were Ariel and Christy tell Mateo about the loss of their brother Frankie. Mateo spontaneously starts crying, but what makes the scene unforgettable is the small white hand of Ariel on the strong black arm of Mateo. Beautiful! The second scene that I loved a lot, was the scene where Johnny comes to Mateo. He tells him a bit about his lost son, tells him about the fact he can't laugh or cry anymore, asks him if he's in love with his wife. The answer of Mateo, he tells him he's in love with anything that lives, is another strong scene with breathtaking acting from Hounsou's part! And then there are the two girls. Charming, heartwarming, very touching and sweet, spontaneous and honest! Both give amazing performances. The stole my heart from the minute I saw them. The funny detail is that they really are two sisters.

I don't know anymore how often I have to repeat it, but this movie is a must see for everyone. This is the kind of movie you enjoy every time you'll see it again. Jim Sheridan made (again!) a great movie. See it!

9/10

In America is a lovely family melodrama with humor, sweetness and sorrow. This film also delivers a wonderful positive and hopeful message. It avoids being overly vulgar or shocking for it's own sake and is that rare bird today, an intelligent family film. Disney wishes they could produce work of such substance. Director Jim Sheridan's vision of Irish immigrants in Hell's Kitchen is fresh, original and avoids the easily drawn New York stereotypes all too often trotted out in other films. Once again, Samantha Morton is luminous, Djimon Hounsou is reliably intense and the two beautiful girls are the touching, vibrant heart of the film. Portrayal of loving family life is no small task in today's cynical world, but this film genuinely succeeds. Sheridan's brief homage to John Ford is an easy reminder that were he alive and working today In America is the kind of film Pappy might make.

As a parent, although I fortunately have not had the experience, I can understand the unspeakable tragedy of losing a child. In America by Jim Sheridan is a very personal film about coping with loss and slowly coming to terms with it. The film is based on Sheridan's personal experiences and a film in which according to the director "basically, everything that happens in the film happened". The story is based on the recollection of Sheridan's two daughters, Naomi and Kirsten (now in their twenties) and is more of a tone poem about childhood than a faithful depiction of real events.

Irish émigrés Johnny (Paddy Considine) and Sarah (Samantha Morton) come to America by car from Canada with their two young children, Christy (Sarah Bolger) and Ariel (Emma Bolger). The film shows the struggles of the family to find work. Johnny, the girls father, is an actor who goes to many auditions without success and their mother Sarah, a teacher, can only find work in an ice cream parlor. The family is forced to live in a squalid tenement in Manhattan filled with junkies, drug dealers, and transvestites. Frankie, the brother who died of a brain tumor is omnipresent in their thoughts and Christy says that he has told her that he will grant her three wishes when she asks.

Shame over poverty leads people to do reckless things and one of Christy's wishes has to be expended when her father gambles the rent money in an amusement park. When Halloween comes, the only place they can go trick or treating is in their own rundown building. Here they meet Mateo (Djimon Hounsou), one of the central characters of the film, a huge black man dying of AIDS who provides a bit of magic and emotional support. When Sarah becomes pregnant, they are even more haunted by Frankie's death but the prospect of a new life provides the impetus for them to persevere. In America has its flaws but it is warm, charming, and full of wonder and works on a very personal level to remind us that love, generosity, and even magic can exist in the most unlikely circumstances.

Based on the purportedly true story of director Jim Sheridan and Family's immigration to Manhattan from Ireland in the early Eighties. I use the adjective "purportedly" because much of *In America* doesn't make any sense. Why does a middle-class Irish family feel the need to sneak into the U.S. from Canada, claiming that they're on holiday? The financial wherewithal and annoying paperwork required to legally immigrate to this country would've posed far less problems to this family than to, say, a family of penniless Mexicans. The entire set-up of this movie is unconvincing.

And thus it continues: out-of-work actor Jimmy (Paddy Considine, looking like late-Eighties Gary Oldman and acting like early-Nineties Tim Roth) manages to move himself and his family into a gigantic loft in a bad part of town that is, apparently, rent-free. Even in early-Eighties New York, an apartment that size would be beyond the conjoined means of a waitress and a cab-driver. Setting this unlikely and unfortunately large point aside, the movie dives into utter fantasy when we see Considine, on foot, dragging a battered old air-conditioner behind him on a busy street, incurring the wrath of on-coming traffic. Apparently he does this because he can't lift the machine over a sidewalk curb . . . and yet we later see him carry the damn thing up several flights of stairs to his apartment. Boy, there's nothing prosaic in *In America*: everything is a Very Big Deal, taken to extremes. Mystery-Man Djimon Hounsou, who lives a flight down from the Sheridans, has painted "KEEP AWAY" in scary lettering on his door while screaming like a madman 24/7 behind that door. But it turns out that he's an artist who takes an instant liking to the Sheridan girls after they bang insistently on his door for Halloween candy. It also turns out that he has a strange disease (AIDS, natch -- this is the early Eighties, remember, when apparently no one knew what to call it) and is "in love" with not only Samantha Morton, but with Considine, their two daughters, and the unborn baby in Morton's womb. Sheesh!

I feel sort of uncomfortable knocking a guy's "true story", but this whole project smacks of personal revisionism. One is not too surprised to learn that Sheridan's daughters co-wrote the screenplay: Our Story, As We Wanted It To Be (Not Necessarily As It Actually Happened). All of us overlay a mythical patina over our childhood memories, but great artists struggle to scrape it away in order to obtain verisimilitude. *In America* reveals a lot about the Sheridans' taste in art-house cinema (e.g., Fellini) and, for that matter, popular cinema (e.g., Spielberg). The movie mimics, homages, and takes the worst from both of those directors. Unfortunately, it reveals very little about what their own lives were really like, I daresay. The period-setting seems ambivalent: it's supposed to be '82 or '83, but I saw a lot of recent car makes on the street, including some anachronistic SUVs. Most of the story occurs in that weird, Fellini-esquire apartment complex, inhabited by artful graffiti and friendly junkie neighbors, and so we can hardly get a grasp of the New York setting (this movie could take place anywhere, which can hardly be the directors' intention). I'm also not sure what Sheridan means by the movie's title: *In America*. This family does not seem any more dislocated than the other New Yorkers on view here, all of whom appear to leading lives of quiet desperation. Perhaps this is Sheridan's point. If so, it minimizes the uniqueness of his family's story -- again, this would seem antithetical to the director's purposes.

The Bolger sisters who play the daughters, however, manage to redeem the movie from utter failure. Their parts seem to have been written from a overly fond, nostalgic point of view: the younger sister is entirely too cute; the older is entirely too wise. But the girls are a delight to watch, anyway. One real moment -- in a movie otherwise stuffed with unreal moments -- occurs when Considine is preparing for an upcoming audition, memorizing a script. The girls, hiding behind a shower curtain, keep sticking their heads out, giggling and pestering him with useless, girlish questions. The scene almost makes the rest of the movie worth watching.

Almost. 3 stars out of 10.