La critique de James Berardinelli (1)

In America is a unique and moving look at the so-called "immigrant experience" that is as much about family dynamics as it is about the struggle to survive in an unfamiliar country. Directed, co-written, and co-produced by Jim Sheridan, who is best known for his Daniel Day-Lewis collaborations, My Left Foot, In the Name of the Father, and The Boxer, In America represents a balanced portrait of the highs and lows of life for those who have ventured beyond familiar terrain in the search of something new.

Johnny and Sarah (Paddy Considine and Samantha Morton), along with their two young daughters, Christie (Sarah Bolger) and Ariel (Emma Bolger), have arrived in the United States from Ireland via Canada. They have left behind not only everything they knew, but raw memories of a son whose tragic death still haunts them. With all of their worldly possessions in a station wagon, they arrive at a dilapidated New York City apartment that they struggle to make into a home.

It isn't easy - nor is getting money to pay the rent. Johnny finds that rejection is a way of life for a would-be actor. Sarah becomes the family breadwinner by working as a waitress at a local ice cream parlor. The unexpected friendship shown by the mysterious Mateo (Djimon Hounsou) represents a turning point in the family's attempts to cope with their new life and come to grips with the ghosts that still haunt them.

La critique de James Berardinelli (2)

There are two key differences between In America and a "typical" film about immigrants living in America. In the first place, the setting is contemporary. Most movies contemplating this subject take us back to the early 1900s, when Ellis Island was brimming with optimistic newcomers. (It's worth noting that there isn't a single shot of the Statue of Liberty in In America, even though most of the film takes place not far away.) Secondly, the movie is not relentlessly depressing, as many immigrant stories are.

Sheridan, who is known as a political filmmaker, does not advance a cause. Instead, he focuses on the push-pull forces that simultaneously bind Johnny and Sarah's family and threaten to tear them apart. In America is filled with small moments of tragedy and triumph - much as is the case in real life. Those in search of a depressing tale of crushed dreams will need to look elsewhere.
                                                                                                 
At least in part, the film's perspective is that of 11-year old Christie. The voiceover narrative, which is used sparingly, is hers, and the film occasionally employs images captured through a low-cost camcorder that is her constant companion. Christie's childlike innocence is important to the story's development. Her implicit faith in others allows her to approach Mateo without fear, rather than to cower away from him like the other inhabitants of the tenement.

La critique de James Berardinelli (fin)

The acting is uniformly superb. As the parents, Paddy Considine and Samantha Morton strike the right chords as a loving father and mother attempting to deal with their own grief while trying to shield their surviving children from the core of their pain and sporadic despair. The Bolger sisters, Sarah and Emma, are natural performers, capturing our sympathy from the beginning with their flawless, unaffected work. The film's most emotionally true moment occurs when Christie admits that no one seems to recognize she lost something precious when her brother died.

In many ways, it's a pleasure to encounter a motion picture about immigration that doesn't have an overt political agenda. While there's a place for that sort of movie, there's also a place for something like In America, which focuses on characters and their interaction, and doesn't leave the viewer floundering in a whirlpool of unrelieved depression. Sheridan's overall approach is cautiously optimistic, and, as a result, In America turns out to be uplifting, even though the sensitive viewer will find many opportunities to shed tears.

© 2003 James Berardinelli

La critique de Roger Ebert (1)
November 26, 2003 

"In America" has a moment when everything shifts, when two characters face each other in anger, and there is an unexpected insight into the nature of their relationship. It is a moment sudden and true; we realize how sluggish many movies are in making their points, and how quickly life can blindside us.

The moment takes place between Johnny (Paddy Considine), the father of an Irish immigrant family recently arrived in New York City, and Mateo (Djimon Hounsou), the angry Nigerian painter who lives below them in a shabby tenement. Mateo is known as "the man who screams" because his anguish sometimes echoes up the stairs. But when Johnny's young daughters knock on his door for trick-or-treating, he is unexpectedly gentle with them.

Johnny's wife Sarah (Samantha Morton) invites Mateo to diner, he becomes friendly with the family during a time when Paddy is feeling hard-pressed and inadequate, and slowly Paddy begins to suspect that romantic feelings are developing between his wife and the man downstairs.All of that grows slowly in the movie, in the midst of other events, some funny, some sad, all rich with life. It is a suspicion rustling beneath the surface, in Johnny's mind and ours. Finally, Johnny confronts Mateo:

"Do you want to be in my place?"

"I might," says Mateo.

"Do you love my wife?"

"I love your wife. And I love you. And I love your children," Mateo says, barking the words ferociously.

There is a silence, during which Johnny's understanding of the situation changes entirely. I will not reveal what he believes he has discovered (it may not be what you are thinking). The rest of the film will be guided by that moment, and what impressed me was the way the dialogue uses the techniques of short fiction to trigger the emotional shift. This is not a "surprise" in the sense of a plot twist, but a different way of seeing. It's the kind of shift you find in the sudden insight of the young husband at the end of Joyce's "The Dead." It's not about plot at all. It's about how you look at someone and realize you have never really known them.

The screenplay is by Jim Sheridan, the director, and his daughters Naomi and Kirsten. It is dedicated "to Frankie," and in the movie the family has two young daughters, and there was a son named Frankie who died of a brain tumor after a fall down the stairs. "In America" is not literally autobiographical (the real Frankie was Sheridan's brother, who died at 10), but it is intensely personal. It's not the typical story of turn-of-the-century immigrants facing prejudice and struggle, but a modern story, set in the 80s and involving new sets of problems, such as racism and the drug addiction in the building and the neighborhood. It is also about the way poverty humiliates those who have always prided themselves on being able to cope.