Did you watch Brooklyn? (Spoiler)

[Bejazzled]

What a beautiful film

Although I did feel sorry for the spurned chap at the end.

I read the book when it came out and watched the film on a flight a couple of years ago. I loved it. Irish. Moved away for sort of similar reasons. I miss Ireland and my family but I’m glad I moved.

I thought the film was very good. Might download it to watch again.

Oh, I agree, I think we're supposed to grasp that Tony had vision, ambition and canny instincts, and would do extremely well, and that Eilis would help run the financial side of things, and they would genuinely build a family business. And while she's initially a bit shocked at his family's cramped living conditions, she's also charmed by them and by the lack of the kind of genteel smalltown class consciousness and point-scoring of her home environment.

Exactly, whilst she would just step into Jim's parents' shoes if she stayed with him.

It's a wonderful film about homesickness and I've talked to many men about this and they totally get it.

I did indeed experience homesickness when I moved from Ireland to London, though I really love England.

I think she should have stayed in Ireland, but that was me as an outsider looking in. It was a great film.

The only reason I'd have married Jim the Catch would have been so I could lord it over the bitter cow who owned the shop. But I can be quite petty...

I enjoyed it too but I didn't understand how they blocked off the shared loo on the ship? (Bit petty I know but can anyone explain please?)

Falmer, I think there was a lockable door on each side of the bathroom, one accessed from Eilis's room and one from the other, each with a lock on the inside. Once you were in there you could lock the other side's door and, as Eilis puts it, 'negotiate'

I really enjoyed the film, but I preferred the book. Darker and the ending is much more bittersweet and painful. It’s doesn’t have the ‘happy ending’ of the film.

Saoirse Roman is a lovely actress, though.

Tony had vision, ambition and canny instincts, and would do extremely well, and that Eilis would help run the financial side of things, and they would genuinely build a family business

See, the book portrays this so differently. That he is quite limited in his visit n (to run the family business and build a house in the middle of nowhere) and that he just assumes Ailish will slot in to his mundane dream life as mother and bookkeeper. In the book, you really get the sense of how limited a young woman’s options were at that time...

vision

I loved both the book and the film. Agree they were different in portrayal and the book is more realistic in many ways.

I think it is a really astute depiction of the emigrant's dilemma. The very fact of emigrating means the old life of just living in your home place is never simply available to you - you will always be giving up another way of life, whether you stay or go home. I think it is significant that Toibin is himself an emigrant.

When we watched the film, I said after how sad I was that she couldn't stay with Jim as it would be an easier life in some ways. DH pointed out that she chose Tony and chose her life there whereas in Ireland there were no choices - the job was presented to her as a done deal.

Thanks Tom

See, the book portrays this so differently. That he is quite limited in his visit n (to run the family business and build a house in the middle of nowhere) and that he just assumes Ailish will slot in to his mundane dream life as mother and bookkeeper.

I've read the novel, and it's the novel that I'm thinking of, not the film. Yes, his vision is limited American Dream on a very small scale but then so is Eilis's. They're both unexceptional and rather colourless -- Colm Toibin is interested in very ordinary people. We have to assume, I think, that E would have drifted into staying in Ireland because it was easier and what people expected, if Demon Shoplady (whose name escapes me) hadn't got wind of her marriage.

I unexpectedly really enjoyed the film. Where her mother went to bed early really hit me though; it was very poignant. I like to imagine her mother grew old and Eilis came to visit her once again in her home in Ireland, with her new husband and their children...(I really am thinking too much into it!).

Often when you return back 'home' you get a rosy coloured view of things. The wind in your hair, the sand in your toes, your English friends going gaga at the views and the friendliness of the place. The reality is very much different. It's a way of life, like every other way of life, no easy answers, no easy fixes.

You take the best option; it may not work but it's YOUR option.

Tony tells her that he's building five houses on the land and selling three. I think his vision, standing in an empty field, impresses her. We know that Long Island was subsequently developed into housing so he definitely had the right idea. Jim on the other hand would spend his whole life serving drinks at his father's bar. Anyway, who wouldn't cross an ocean to wake up to Tony's smile every day? I know I would!

I like to imagine her mother grew old and Eilis came to visit her once again in her home in Ireland, with her new husband and their children...(I really am thinking too much into it!).

She did. Their construction business hit the big time and they made buckets of cash so could even afford to bring the Cadillac with them on the boat when they visited. Her mother was mortified at the showiness but secretly impressed and only put up a very weak protest when Eilis offered to drive her to mass in the Yank car.

Surely they paid for her to join them in America!

Oh no! She'd never have left Enniscorthy. Being able to wander down to the cowbag's shop and loudly tell everyone what a success Eilis and her husband were would have given her far more joy than upping sticks and moving to Long Island. I don't think Eilis' mum would have flourished in an Italian American household. She might witness someone putting an affectionate hand on their spouse's bottom. And that wouldn't do.

Exactly, squoosh. And, in fairness, she'd probably have earned every second of her gloating, because Shop Cowbag would have had it all round the town the second Eilis left that she'd secretly married a greasy Eyetie mechanic before coming home to plámás and hoodwink a nice, respectable boy like Jim with her slutty American wiles.

Good point, DiplomaticBag! Poor Mammy would have had to steel herself for a few weeks of gossipy whispers aimed her way. And that would not have been fun. By the time the story had filtered through the town sweet little Tony would have become a 50 year old, thrice married pimp.

Grandchildren would lure her over to live in the “big house” with her “successful” daughter and son-in-law.

I agree SoupDragon She's a very kind woman and I think she would like Tony and his family.

Yes, his family would bring her out of her shell and she’d turn into a fun loving woman with lots of friends.

It would definitely make a good series.