In America

Monday, December 15, 2003

Jim Sheridan’s In America proved entirely too moving for me. I was in bits at various stages throughout the film – not just a few tears in my eyes, but full-on weeping. Powerful stuff.

I’d been expecting not to enjoy it, and there’s no doubt it’s hugely sentimental, but Sheridan somehow manages to make it feel like you’re not being manipulated.

It seems like the cynical and hard-hearted British reviewers declared it mawkish, but a perceptive review in the San Francisco Chronicle gets it about right: ‘When you see a director going for that lump-in-the-throat mood, instinct takes over and you want to dig in your heels. Sometimes it’s best just to let yourself be swept away.’