In America

Reviewed by EWAN McDONALD

Herald rating: * * * *

The backstory to Irish director Jim Sheridan's movie is more complicated than most, for it involves truths and myths from the director's life.

Sheridan may be best known for his first movie My Left Foot, the Oscar-winning biopic of Christy Brown, and In the Name of the Father.

On the back of that success, Sheridan took his family to New York as the artistic director of an Irish cultural mission. He insists this story, about Irish immigrants finding it hard to settle in the 80s, is drawn from those experiences.

Further, the movie family of Mum, Dad, and two sisters have moved from Ireland to get over the death of a son and brother, Frankie. Sheridan had a brother, Frankie, who died at age 10.

And furthermore, Sheridan wrote the screenplay with input from his daughters, Naomi and Kirsten, contributing recollections of their childhood.

The movie follows Johnny (Paddy Considine) as he enters America, illegally, on a tourist visa, coming overland from Canada. He is taking his wife, Sarah (Samantha Morton), and their daughters, Christy and Ariel (Sarah and Emma Bolger), to New York where he dreams of making it as an actor.

The tragedy of their son's death hangs over the family as Johnny drives a taxi at night and Sarah, a teacher, works at an icecream parlour and does her best to make a home in a rundown apartment block.

Among the junkies and transvestites is "the man who screams", Mateo (Djimon Hounsou), a huge Nigerian painter. Family life will enter an unexpected dimension when the children bring him into their home.

Morton and Considine give marvellous performances as a couple who are never sure what life will deal them next.

But this mixture of comedy, unfathomable sadness, failed dreams, that so desperately wants to have a happy ending, misses its mark, chiefly because of a chronic case of sugar-overload. It is hard to resist the conclusion that Sheridan, the writer-director-father-brother, is too close to major elements of the story, and the action.

On the DVD, Sheridan's daughters join him in the Making Of ... feature, to give insights into the family and their view of their father. Sheridan traverses similar ground, though in a lighter tone, on his commentary, and there are nine deleted scenes.

DVD, video rental June 9