In America (2002, Ireland/UK)

Jim Sheridan’s In America is a heartfelt, if predictable, film about the difficulties facing an immigrant Irish family that moves to New York City in the 1980’s. The acting is first-rate across the board, with fine turns by Paddy Considine and Samantha Morton as parents who are dealing with both a new environment and the loss of a child, as well as sisters Sarah and Emma Bolger as the daughters who bring a sense of wonder to their new life.

Morton is billed first, but it is Considine who anchors the movie with his performance as an emotionally withdrawn father, struggling to make it as an actor in Manhattan while keeping his family barely above water. But despite the quality of the acting, and the genuine feeling evoked by the story, the arc of the plot is entirely too predictable. There is also some difficulty with the exotification of the character played by Djimon Hounsu, an AIDS-stricken artist who lives a floor below the family. His “primal” creative nature and tragic story are intertwined in an uncomfortable way with the narrative of the primary characters. Though it is a well-meaning and honestly quite lovely film, it has better luck with its depiction of familial relationships than as an examination of multicultural immigrant life.