(2002)
4
Michael Hastings
Over the course of four unflinching portraits of stubborn, headstrong Irish antiheroes -- My Left Foot, The Field, In the Name of the Father, and The Boxer -- no one could ever accuse writer/director Jim Sheridan of viewing the past through rose-colored glasses. That is, until In America, the filmmaker's effective but sentimental account of one family's not-so-legal immigration to New York City. No matter how many incidents in Sheridan's semi-autobiographical script are purportedly true-to-life, as presented, many of them seem unbelievable, among them: that two parents would let their daughters freely roam the halls of their seedy, drug-addict-infested tenement building; that a father would wager his family's savings on a carnival game; and that an unlikely benefactor would rescue said family from financial ruin. Despite -- or perhaps because of -- these implausibilities, In America plays more along the lines of sweet-natured fable than gritty family drama, an observation only enhanced by the film's scene-stealing pair of child actors, sisters Sarah and Emma Bolger. As the not-so-sensible parents, Paddy Considine is alternately endearing and infuriating, and Samantha Morton inappropriately seethes for most of the film's running time. Sheridan intermittently finds the right tone for the material -- wistful, bittersweet nostalgia -- but one can't help but think that if he had been more in tune with his impish daughter characters, In America would have been classic instead of just fine.
In America on AllMovie
In America (2002)
