Great Film overall

Good start, but then it gets ruined

From my favorite movies..

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

A family of Irish immigrants adjust to life on the mean streets of Hell's Kitchen while also grieving the death of a child.The film was nominated for three Academy Awards including Best Original Screenplay for the Sheridans, Best Actress for Samantha Morton and Best Supporting Actor for Djimon Hounsou. Yet, the real reason to watch this is for the two sisters and how charming they are.Ebert wrote, "In America is not unsentimental about its new arrivals (the movie has a warm heart and frankly wants to move us), but it is perceptive about the countless ways in which it is hard to be poor and a stranger in a new land." More than this, it shows an interesting cross-section of race and nationality. Not the great film it wants to make itself out to be, but still a rather light-hearted walk down the path of modern immigration (keeping it even lighter by having the immigrants speak English).

This movie is about many things. The main plot line is family pain and struggle.What makes this movie great though is its portrayal of mental health and its "solutions". One is just reaching out to a hermit. The beauty and power of children to accomplish this.The power of that message is in this song. Sarah Bolger has an absolutely incredibly fantastic and beautiful singing voice, and the song's punchline is "let somebody love you before its too late"That message applies to her character's parents, and the more obviously sad character in the film.

In America stars 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 to a junkie-infested apartment building in New York City with their two daughters, Christy and Ariel. Though they struggle with meager jobs and suffocatingly hot weather, a friendship with an artist in an apartment below them becomes a catalyst that allows them to rebuild their family. The semi-autobiographical screenplay by director Jim Sheridan and his daughters Naomi and Kirsten as they focus on an immigrant Irish family's efforts to survive in New York City, as seen through the eyes of the elder daughter.Sarah Bolger,Emma Bolger and Djimon Hounsou co-star to play key supporting roles.The film is splendidly acted throughout.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.This immigration drama is simple and modest to a fault but it's sporadically touching and easily the most emotionally satisfying.

Rather than a gritty drama about Irish immigrants struggling to make due, Jim Sheridan has turned the downtrodden parts of New York City into the backdrop for a real-life fairy tale in his film "In America."Instead of frightening us with frank confrontations of real-world problems in the form of drug dealers, trouble paying the rent and following one's dreams, the film holds closer to the family's two little girls, presenting events with a sense of wonder and at times a more raw child-like fear rather than true danger. So what seems like a film about an Irish-American family with Irish-American issues is actually a film about a unique family with its own unique issues, namely a ghost of the past that burdens all of them.The Sullivans, Johnny (Paddy Considine), Sarah (Samantha Morton), Christy (Sarah Bolger) and Ariel (Emma Bolger) move to Manhattan in hopes that Johnny can launch his acting career. They move into an apartment in the rough part of town and try to settle in, except from the very beginning it's clear that the family is still grieving the loss of its only son, Frankie, who died of a tumor.Whereas Frankie's death has impacted Johnny and Sarah in real ways, the girls have a unique understand and perspective on their departed brother. Christy, the film's narrator and a brilliant little girl (as both character and actress) asks him to grant her three wishes throughout the course of the film at pivotal moments. Both Bolger girls are quite gifted and they give the film its wholesome and at times even magical tone.Frankie's death is both the spoken and unspoken source of conflict in the film, which otherwise serves as a portrait of American life in one particular time in one particular place. Some scenes provide humor and levity whereas others are more thought-provoking. One such scene takes place at a street carnival where Johnny nearly throws away an entire paycheck on a carnival game in order to win Ariel a stuffed animal version of E.T. That scene almost says it all about this little gem.The most powerful chapter of the film, however, involves Mateo (Djimon Hounsou), an African-American artist living downstairs. He's painted "Keep Away" on his door and the girls have often heard screaming from inside his apartment, but on Halloween they bravely knock on his door and they form an unusual friendship that has quite emotional results."In America" has a very personal feel to it and that's evidenced by the dedication before the credits to his late brother Frankie (and also given that he collaborated on the script with this siblings). Although not quite what you're expected in terms of dramatics, "In America" is moving and an absolute pleasure to watch.~Steven CVisit my site at http://moviemusereviews.com