Freshers week: the perfect film to cry to
A few days ago, I sat in front of my tv ready to browse for a film to watch. After the obligatory
trawl through Netflix and the hordes of films that no one ever really wants to watch, I switched
the screen onto BBC iPlayer. Here, my gaze was immediately caught by the film Brooklyn,
based on the novel by Colm Tóibín of the same name, about a girl who moves from her small
Irish town to New York in the 1950s. I had seen it before, but years ago when it first came out in 2015. Back then, I had enjoyed it, but I was still at school, living comfortably at home, so its
themes of homesickness and isolation didn’t resonate perhaps how they were supposed to. I’m
pretty sure my 15 year old self was more interested in the romantic elements of the story, which,
don’t get me wrong, are still worth watching for.
This time, however, I was struck by the accuracy and sensitivity with which Brooklyn portrayed the struggles of moving to a new place. Saoirse Ronan is excellent as Eilis, whose trip across the pond is funded by a benevolent priest called Father Flood, who soon becomes her only link to home once she arrives in Brooklyn. For the first few months of Eilis’ new life (twenty minutes or so for us), she is grey-faced, silent, and bursts into tears at any given moment. Desperate for any news from home, she exists as a sort of ghost in New York, her mind and thoughts very much still in Ireland with her family. A montage of her crossing the road at the same traffic lights each day, standing amongst a crowd of people who never notice her, perfectly conveys the liminal state she exists in for the first portion of the film. Gradually, after an intervention from Father Flood, Eilis begins to thrive. She starts night classes and goes to dances, eventually meeting a sweet Italian American boy called Tony who begins to make her feel as if Brooklyn is her home. Then tragedy strikes and she is forced to return to Ireland, where she ultimately has to make a choice between two places and two lives.
As someone who has had to suffer the obstacles of moving to a new place a few
times now, Brooklyn was a nice reminder of the fact that homesickness is temporary. If you have
just moved to Leeds, or even if you are a returning student, this film is both a comforting way to
indulge your homesickness, and a way to reassure yourself that things will, inevitably, get better.
It is always tricky to navigate the divide between expectations and reality, and moving away
from home can be overwhelming, tiring and lonely. But, as Brooklyn so eloquently proclaims, it
can also be fun and exciting and full of new people and possibilities. If you are feeling
despondent, missing home or worrying that university is not how you imagined, follow Eilis’
example and trust that you will soon find a way to fit yourself into this new life. I recommend that
if you want an escape from hectic socialising, allow yourself some self-indulgent wallowing in
front of Brooklyn. Cry your eyes out and then, trust me, you’ll feel better.
Header image credit: Entertainment Weekly
