Curapedi I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

Zandra The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

Lela The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

Billy Ollie Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

Eric Stevenson I'm going to do something very special for this review. I'm going to write it in perspective to you, Mom, because I know you're reading this. I remember the exact day that you and Dad came out of the theater and were talking about how great this movie was. You kept mentioning it when you were talking about your favorite movies and how it was possibly your favorite movie of all time. While I certainly loved this, I really didn't like it as much as you. Don't get me wrong, it's a classic film! It's just not personally one of the best I've ever seen in my life. I feel bad for not loving it more like you did.I thought that this movie was going to take place in the 1920's. I guess it's because the plot was about immigrants from Europe so I was envisioning it taking place on Ellis Island back in the times where European immigration to this country was all the rage. Instead, I was surprised it was in modern times. Well, they show ET so it's technically taking place in the 1980's, but still a lot more recent than I thought. I was so impressed by the length of this film. It wasn't too long or short. I was surprised they managed to show such an epic story in such a short time! I thought it would go on too long, but the length was perfect! What's great about this movie is just how there's no bullcrap.There's no attempt in the least for this film to be fancy or elaborate. Instead, it works so hard to be as realistic as possible. As the end of the credits say, it is in fact based on a true story and was confirmed by this website. Maybe the reason this really struck me was because it was about this new family moving into an apartment. Well, it's not new for me anymore, but it definitely reminds me of the struggles I've had to deal with. Even last night, I had a dream about going back to our old house. It wasn't a bad dream, it wasn't even anything I've been thinking about lately. It's just well, a dream. I'm happy to have matured and moved on just like this movie.And yeah, it makes me think about having kids too. I still seriously consider that. I think the most intense scene in the whole film is probably when the dad is playing the ET game. You just have absolutely no idea whether he'll win or lose. The great part is how he does win the ET doll and for the rest of the movie, we see that doll in the background. It's the great details like that which make a film great. Everything that goes on is important. I love the little girl as the narrator. There's cam footage, but not that much, so it never becomes annoying.I think the implication at the end is that the guy gives his life to save the baby. It doesn't even explicitly state he dies. I honestly thought it would be the father in that role. Instead, it had a happy ending, well as happy as a realistic film like this can. While it didn't make me as emotional as "United 93" or "Bridge To Terabithia", it's still a great piece of work. I just love finding out about all the details of their lives, like Halloween, religion, and snow. You'd think this would be Bandit Keith's favorite movie. He said, "In America!" all the time! He's a character from a show called "Yu-Gi-Oh" made into an Internet parody, Mom. Don't cry, Mom. I'm living my life to the fullest right now and even things can seem bleak, they will get better eventually. Thank you for supporting me in these reviews. I may have more disliked than liked ones, but I still love doing this. ****

kijii The movie opens with a young Irish family of four—father, mother, and two young daughters—crossing the Canadian-American boarder in their station wagon. We realize that they are entering illegally when the father prompts his family to say that they are entering America on holiday. But, the younger daughter accidentally blurts out that her dad has no job. When the boarder guard gets distracted while admiring the two girls, he smiles, waves them through and says, 'Welcome to America.' Thus begins the modern story of a brave and persevering Irish family trying to 'start over' while carrying the ghost of their late son and brother, Frankie, with them in their minds and spirits. (They all seem profoundly affected by Frankie's recent death.) The four principal characters in the story are Johnny (Paddy Considine), his wife, Sarah (Samantha Morton) and their two daughters, Christy and Ariel (played by real-life sisters, Sarah and Emma Bolger.) The movie's story is told through the eyes and narration of the older daughter, Christy, who constantly carries her camcorder around with her.After the family arrives in NYC, they are forced to live in a virtually unkept building filled with perverts and drug addicts. One of the inhabitants includes the mysterious recluse 'man who screams' and has a KEEP OUT sign on his front door. Sarah takes a job selling ice cream while Johnny searches for employment as an actor and the girls enroll in a Catholic girls' school. As they struggle to survive, they must sell their car and Johnny has to take a night job as a cab driver. The movie is a thesaurus of emotionally moving scenes and subplots, including the quest to get an air conditioner to survive the New York summer heat and the girls' discovery of an American custom: trick-or-treating on Halloween. As the girls go trick-or-treating in their building, they knock persistently on the door of 'the crazy screaming man.' When he finally answers the door, he is angry. But he is soon won over by these wonderful little girls' vulnerability and openness. This is when 'the crazy screaming man,' a black African artist named Mateo (Djimon Hounsou) first enters the movie as a full character. Mateo becomes very close to the family. But, he is also dying of a terminal disease. (We are led to believe that the disease is AIDS).Sarah becomes pregnant, but her pregnancy is difficult and requires even more sacrifice from the family. (She is determined to see it through to the end, no doubt trying to replace their lost child, Frankie.) We—the audience--are now caught up in three simultaneous struggles: that of Sarah to give life to their unborn child; that of Mateo's death; and that of the family to give up the pain of Frankie's recent death.This autobiographical movie is lovingly put together by the Sheridan family. Jim Sheridan directed this film as well as co-writing its Oscar nominated script with his nieces, Naomi and Kirsten Sheridan. The movie is dedicated to Frankie, who—according to the IMDb-- died of a brain tumor.

powermandan In America's legacy has made it become one of the most critically acclaimed films of the 2000s. Well-known film critic Richard Roeper called it the best of 2003, second best of the decade (only behind The Departed, which was actually a worthy #1), and a timeless work of art equal to Frank Capra. Really? Geez! It was great but certainly not THAT great! I do have some problems with believability and pointers that would have made the movie better. But nonetheless, what the movie has is a terrific immigration drama that everybody will cherish.The movie takes place in 1982 where a poor family moves to Hells Kitchen from Ireland in search of a better life. I guess that the Cold War drove them out and they chose New York for opportunity, but why not elsewhere in the state of New York or Canada? Oh well. The family is still mourning the death of their 5-year-old son Frankie, but the older of the children (played by the real life sisters) prays to Frankie for 3 wishes and will only use them up for special and much-needed times. They move to the ghetto part of Hells Kitchen where they must do all they can to make ends meet.There are some really great moments that will make you melt. The first happens when they go to a carnival and the dad plays a ball-throwing game to win a stuffed doll of ET. ET is a reoccurring motif since he is an alien and the movie is about aliens in America. The dad is willing to give up all their money for that doll. But it is not just about the doll, the scene has so much to offer. A few scenes are almost this strong, but the intention was to make the audience feel as proud as the characters. Director Jim Sheridan succeeds in doing that.Here is my criticism. The family just lost their youngest child, they're dirt-poor, and must adjust to living in a new land unfamiliar to them. I know that the family tries to keep it all together, but they seemed way to calm to hold so much grief in. I have experienced loss, so its not like I don't know what I'm talking about. Losing a loved one (especially children) and money problems are the two hugest factors that break a family apart. There are brief outbursts at the end, but that is where they should have subsided. We see the family struggling, but them getting by so easily wasn't anything huge.My next bit I found wrong was that there didn't seem to be much moments of true victories that could REALLY get the audience glowing. The dad winning the ET doll and a scene near the end are it in terms of true victories. Most of the times the family overcomes an obstacle just puts a little smile on the viewer's face, not a starstruck smile that "Rocky" or "It's a Wonderful Life" did. The reason the ET scene worked so well was because so much was on the line and we saw him failing and the stakes getting higher and higher. I know that a poor immigrant family holds all on the line, but them getting over it all just seemed too easy for me to get the same reaction from other people. So these two flaws effected the whole movie and prevented me from giving it a perfect score. I know that I just spent most of the time giving it flack, but the movie does have strong suits too. The parents are admirable and the girls are adorable. The girls are what really carry this movie. The whole point of this movie is love these characters and be proud of them. The movie focuses mainly on their ups and how they cope with things that most other families would be torn apart from. The girls believe in magic, and magic is a motif that is played about perfectly. And frankly, "magic" is the best word for this film.

Ed-Shullivan Whose life has not had some tragedy strike it? It is not when tragedy strikes that makes us wonder what life is all about, but in this film, how this Irish family of four overcomes tragedy and the support unit they have that makes a family unite in love and wonderment. Theirs is a story where all family members have had their hearts broken, but yet they still believe in magic, and one little girl named Christy, in her three wishes.Paddy Considine and Samantha Morton who play Johnny and Sarah are the parents of two daughters named Christy and Ariel. Their daughters, Christy and Ariel are played by actresses Sarah and Emma Bolger who are sisters in real life. The film opens with this Irish family crossing into the American border via Canada with their car, a station wagon, that holds what little worldly belongings they have. Older sister Christy needs to use the first of her three magic wishes to ensure that the border patrol officers let her family enter the U.S. border on the pretense that they are only here for a vacation.So with Christy's first wish coming true they are allowed by the border patrol officers to drive across the U.S. border with some iconic 1980's Americana songs playing on their car radio and as they witness in wonderment the bright lights of New York's Times Square and life is grand for this Irish immigrant family. With little money and even less furniture and clothes, they settle into a drug infested Hells Kitchen dilapidated apartment building where the pigeons have overtaken their top floor apartment on first site. With a lot of spit and polish Johnny and Sarah try and make their two little girls a new home in New York's Hells Kitchen and overcome the grief of losing their little brother Frankie to too young a death from a fall and a brain tumour. Johnny tries to eke out a living as an actor and driving cab, while Sarah's steady income as an ice cream parlor server at a store appropriately named Heaven helps get them through each months endless bills.A relationship is formed by these two innocent Irish girls Christy and Ariel, with the reclusive and tormented neighbor Mateo who lives below them. Mateo's character is played by the very versatile and dramatic actor Djimon Honsou. His is a life of trying to get through each day by painting on canvas and with a fridge full of medications as he has also ended up in Hells Kitchen with demons tormenting his life. As the two children befriend Mateo, Johnny and Sarah grow to also adore Mateo and so they spend more time with him through the springtime, to the hot summer, to fall, to winter and back to spring they all bury their pain and enjoy each others company with more 1980's iconic Americana music scores by Lovin' Spoonful, Culture Club and The Byrds, brightening up each scene and drawing their films audience closer to these two diverse apartment dwellers who reside in Hells Kitchen carrying their fair share of the world's nightmares in their heads and on their shoulders.This film is inspiring how these two little girls innocence encourages their parents and their new neighbor Mateo, to put aside their past tragedies, overcome their current poverty and health deficiencies and by relying on each other, and with young Christy's two remaining wishes we witness that dreams can come true.Jim Sheridan wrote and directed In America, and the film was a semi- autobiography dedicated to his brother Frankie who died at the age of 10. This a a beautifully written and directed film, that will tug at your heartstrings and will most certainly bring back some of your own childhood memories if for no other reason than the excellent choice of 1970's and 1980's pop music filtering through the film at the right moments.I give the film a strong 9 out of 10 rating.