In America  

Directed by Jim Sheridan

Written by Jim, Naomi and Kirsten Sheridan

Starring Paddy Considine, Samantha Morton, Sarah and Emma Bolger and Djimon Hounsou

Rated PG-13 for some sexuality, drug references, brief violence and language

103 minutes runtime

Do people immigrant to America to find the paradise that awaits, or to leave a life behind that has become intolerable?  Driven to America by famine, war and religious intolerance, immigrants to America are hungry, scared, and unsure of their actions; at least the adults.  The children?  To the children, their new country is a place of mystery and discovery.  Adults enter America knowing their lives will never be the same and wondering if it will be better or worse.  Children live each day knowing their lives will never be the same; and are glad of it.

This semi-autobiographical story of actor/director Jim Sheridan’s first years in the U.S. is told through the eyes of his 11 year old daughter Christy, played by Sarah Bolger.  Like the animated movie “Spirited Away,” this movie pays homage to the wisdom of youth.  It celebrates an instinctual knowledge of right and wrong and the absence of prejudice.  Above all, it celebrates the faith that we must have to make that next step in our lives.

With Christy is her six year-old sister Ariel, played by Sarah’s real life sister Emma Bolger.  Between the two they tell a story that is both fantastic and wonderful.  A story made all the more powerful by its innocent and direct telling.  The parents Johnny and Sarah start out the movie addled.  Smuggling themselves over the border in the guise of tourists, they can’t even summon up the moxie to each report having the same number of children.  “We lost one, “  Samantha explains.  The movie is about the new family finding America.  It’s also about Johnny finding himself, moving from within a wall built to shield him from the pain of the loss of his son; a wall that threatens to extinguish the spark of his acting. 

Johnny is played by Paddy Considine, an Irish actor new on the American scene, unknown and trying to get work in New York City.  Surely there can be no colder experience.  Bob Fosse commented in that it was no mystery why successful actors could be such beasts.  They were made that way by their treatment as they worked their way to acceptance.  Johnny’s daughter Christy and his wife Sarah support him as best they can, but he can’t put his soul into his lines.  His auditions end in failure.

Sarah (Samantha Morton—Morvern Caller, Minority Report) echoes Johnny’s helplessness as she works in an ice cream parlor to support his acting.  Sarah is indirectly responsible for the death of their infant son and this has driven a wedge between the couple.  Although the couple is very much in love, she can’t unlock the door to Johnny’s emotions.  She provides for the family and just waits for things to get better, until the day when her life is nearly lost in bearing their third child.

As one would imagine, the neighbors in the family’s heroine saturated tenement in Hell’s Kitchen run to the eclectic.  At best they are enterprising drug addicts who live each day with the usual standing orders.  At the worst they are recluses who have admitted defeat and barricaded themselves in their apartments to await their fate.  Adults know better than to bother such people; Christy and Ariel know no such thing.  They barge into the life of neighbor Mateo (Djimon Hounsou), an artist and drug user dying of AIDS, an intervention that is to have earth-shaking impacts on all of their lives.  The beauty and the beast meet in Hell’s Kitchen.

Nominated for a supporting actor Oscar for his work in this movie, Djimon Hounsou is a beast who turns out to be a prophet who becomes a sacrifice.  Although tragically unable to change his own fate, through Christy and Ariel he is able to give life back to Johnny and Sarah.  Dying himself, Mateo expresses his joy to Sarah over the news of her and Johnny’s expected new child.  When this news turns bitterly sour, Johnny erupts at Mateo for interfering, for daring to enter into the sealed chamber of his hidden and ill-expressed grief.  Mateo can do nothing but reveal his acceptance of his own death and his regret at his past mistakes, which shakes Johnny’s self-contained world to the breaking point.  Finally, in a crucial scene, Christy breathes new life into Mateo.  Later, as Sarah’s life hangs in the balance, Mateo returns the favor and releases Johnny from his emotional chains.

Nominated for best supporting actor Oscar for his previous roles in “The Gladiator” and “Amistad,” Hounsou may get the nod for his pivotal part in this movie.  But he is up against stiff competition in the persons of Alec Baldwin (the ruthless casino owner in “The Cooler”) and Benicio Del Toro (the born-again ex-con in “21 Grams).  The competition between these three great actors for this award is nothing but well-deserved congratulations for three great performances.

Johnny’s wife Sarah is played by Samantha Morton, in a role that promises to continue her rise to the top of the professional food chain.  Nominated for the best lead actress Oscar this year for this movie, her past kudos include dozens of nominations and awards including a 2000 nomination for best actress as Hattie in “Sweet and Lowdown” with Sean Penn.  You will hear more from this actress.

The Oscar-nominated screen play was written by Sheridan and his two film-maker daughters Naomi and Kirsten.  In 1990, Jim Sheridan’s  “My Left Foot” won Oscars for Daniel Day-Lewis and Brenda Fricker in the lead and supporting roles.  Although nominated for Best Director for that film, the Oscar eluded him.  Sheridan’s second widely known movie, “In the Name of the Father,” also starred Lewis but was denied at the Academy Awards in spite of seven nominations.  This may be his big year.