In America

Rating

Director

Jim Sheridan

Screenplay

Jim Sheridan, Naomi Sheridan, Kirsten Sheridan

Length

1h 45m

Starring

Paddy Considine, Samantha Morton, Sarah Bolger, Emma Bolger, Neal Jones, Randall Carlton, Ciaran Cronnin, Djimon Hounsou, Juan Hernandez

MPAA Rating

PG-13

Review

It’s a strange situation we find ourselves in. The United States has long been a country where immigrants seek a better life. They form a vital part of our cinematic experience as well and although In America came in a time when such stories were in steep decline, it suggested there might be plenty of vitality left in the genre.

Johnny Sullivan (Paddy Considine) is an out of work actor. Sarah (Samantha Morton) takes care of their two daughters Christy (Sarah Bolger) and Ariel (Emma Bolger). Finding their way to the Big Apple by way of Canada, they are a typical immigrant family. Filled with hope for a better life, they find their survival in such a large, diverse city difficult. Prejudices aren’t uncommon but for the Sullivans, their own experiences give them the perspective that no one is deserving of such disdain. This enables their daughters to befriend a neighbor (Djimon Hounsou) who is dying from AIDS. As the family struggles for financial survival, their faith in each other helps lift them through the most difficult periods.

Director Jim Sheridan wrote his screenplay with daughters Naomi and Kirsten. Together they have crafted a loving tribute to the millions of foreign citizens who’ve come to America to pursue a dream. It explores how love can allow desperate people to endure in even the most hostile environments. It explores the dynamics of perseverance, moral fortitude, and familial togetherness weathering a storm of financial uncertainty all while struggling with the pain of loss, and the disconnect that creates, between a loving couple who’ve lost a child.

Five fantastic performances highlight Sheridan’s warm, semi-autobiographical story. Sisters Bolger play the Sullivan children with confidence and experience, investing their young counterparts with honesty and endearing self-awareness. Morton and Considine epitomize the loving couple, giving Johnny and Sarah Sullivan a touching, honest relationship. They may fight and argue but always find a way back to each other. Hounsou’s role may be brief but it is narratively pivotal. While contending with a virus that will ultimately be the end of him, it isn’t until the Sullivan girls, who have no fear of his HIV diagnosis like many others in the building, that he begins to emerge from his depression and accept that while he may be dying, he may yet be of service to those who are struggling.

Sheridan’s film never strives for maudlin sentimentality, instead dancing ever so gently on the edge of immaculate reverence. His film is filled with warm, unwavering compassion and refuses to pass judgment on the many flaws featured in its lovely frames. And even when you can pick out moments from the film that will foreshadow later events, when they arrive they feel completely natural. This is the kind of movie that in the 1980’s, interestingly when the film was supposed to be set, that would have been a box office blockbuster. It’s a moving portrait that deserved far more attendance than it ultimately received.

Immigrant dramas saw their peak just prior to this film’s intended setting. In the 1970s and dwindling into the 1980s, we saw countless films that focused on the people who made the United States great. An immigrant population searching for a better life. While In America is far removed from that period, it is no less inspiring in its content. In that dingy tenement building in New York City’s Hell’s Kitchen, the film finds quiet contemplation while exemplifying all that’s great about the Great Melting Pot of America. Too bad we’ve faded so very far from that hopeful dream.

Review Written

October 1, 2025