In America: Rating: 1 stars

An Irish family builds a new life in America.

In America (2002)
2002 · · R Drama
Reviewed

I’d heard a lot of good things about this movie — in fact, maybe a few too many good things. The critics loved it; words like “emotionally raw” and “heartbreakingly real” were being bandied about like… like things that get bandied a lot. Not being a trend-sheep, I of course didn’t intend to let such previous reviews affect my own opinion of the film — but I was expecting something above average.

What I got, however, was decidedly average: a tiresome rehashing of the typical we’re-poor-but-we-love-each-other family drama, only with Irish accents instead of American. There’s the adorable little girl, the close but troubled parents, the awkward pre-teen girl recording it all on her camcorder, and — prepare to have your tears dragged screaming from their ducts — dead brother Frankie watching over all of them. It’s Angela’s Ashes meets the Hallmark Channel, all wrapped up in a LifetimeTV bow. Five minutes into it, I had already seen the whole thing in my mind, and my mind had gotten up and left.

Forget about suspending your disbelief; you’ll have to go outside and toss it over the roof if you want to believe the feel-good plot and its ridiculous twists. A baby is mystically tied to a dying artist’s life force; the illegal-immigrant family somehow manages to send the kids to a private Catholic school; the entire family’s happiness depends on the father winning an E.T. doll at a carnival. Most idiotically, the dead brother has somehow granted his sister three wishes, which she conveniently saves for whenever the plot takes a particularly illogical twist. And oh, the moaning about Frankie! By the time they really get going on the Frankie theme, the characters have become so stupid and the plot so contrived that one can’t help but wish the entire family would fall down a flight of stairs, all at the same time, with their angry-but-soft-hearted neighbor coming crashing down on top of them.

The movie was written and directed by Jim Sheridan, who based it on his own emigrant experiences. His two daughters also helped with the script. It’s all too easy to fall prey to the notion that a film is good because it is a true story, not because it is a good film. True story or not, this film made little impression on me, other than to leave an aspartame-sweet aftertaste and a firm resolution not to see any more movies that have been branded as “life-affirming.” I already know I’m alive, thank you; I don’t need any more affirmations.