In America review

 Number 448 on the top 1000 films of all time is Jim Sheridan's comedy-drama 'In America.'

Irish family, father Johnny (Paddy Considine,) mother Sarah (Samantha Morton) and daughters Christy (Sarah Bolger) and Ariel (Emma Bolger) have just moved to New York. As they settle into their new life, they are haunted by a dark secret which threatens to tear their family apart.

This was a good film, but also sentimental - dare I say overly-sentimental? Was it good enough to overcome its sentimentality? I'm not so sure about that. The principle cast were great. Samantha Morton rightly scored a Best Actress Oscar nod while Emma and Sarah Bolger showed a remarkable maturity for their young ages. They're real-life sisters which explained their great on-screen chemistry. 

Paddy Considine was also good, but his character of Jonny was rather annoying considering he was the main character. Johnny is a struggling actor who does whatever it takes to support his family. This includes really stupid things which he does for no reason but to add pointless conflict. He gambles the rent money on winning an ET toy in a carnival game. He walks through traffic to bring back an AC unit for his family. All of this undermined the emotional payoff his actions brought. Having said that, this film was partly based on Jim Sheridan's life, so maybe all this happened in one way or another.

As they say truth is stranger than fiction and the semi-autobiographical nature of the film did give it a generally authentic feel even if some parts were probably exaggerated for dramatic effect. No part felt more exaggerated than with the supporting character - the enigmatic Mateo (Djimon Hounsou.)

Initially, he's presented as an eccentric and dangerous man before it's revealed he has a heart of gold. I don't really know why Sheridan chose to depict him as such as an aggressive recluse who progressively softened up as he befriended the Sullivan family. This culminated in him leaving them an incredible amount of money. I don't think there had been enough groundwork to have justified such a decision. This isn't to discredit Hounsou - he quite rightly earned an Oscar nod, but Mateo's characterisation could have been improved.

And that summarises my opinion of this film. It was by no means bad, but it wasn't as good as it was trying to be.