A subtle attack on Irish provincialism?

I agree with your asessment of the third act of the film. I was happy that she returned to her life in America with Tony.

That's a really good way to put it, and I do see that in the movie.

Absolutely!! The entire town seemed to have an agenda for keeping Eilish in Ireland and it wasn't for her benefit- it was to suit their own ideas of what made sense in their own wee minds.

I didn't get that impression really. Eilis' mother desperately wanted Eilis to stay because she "was all alone" after Rose had died. As far as Eilis' friends were concerned maybe when they saw her take Rose's old job they just assumed she was back for good and then tried to set her up with Jim. Why not? They didn't know she was already married to Tony after all.

And as far as the final showdown between Eilis and Miss Kelly the store owner went I thought they were both at fault there. Miss Kelly was within her rights to privately confront Eilis about whether she married in America and if so why she was paying her attentions to Jim. But Miss Kelly was no saint because she obviously took sadistic pleasure from skewering Eilis.

But Eilis had no-one but herself to blame. She was caught out fair and square stupidly living a lie and so she had to tell the truth to her mother and go back to America. If anything Miss Kelly let Eilis off lightly. She could have spread the rumour of the marriage in the town behind Eilis' back and dropped her right in the poo. But she didn't.





The Players of The Game are the scum of the earth.

I agree with your view of the 3rd act. I don't think it was a big conspiracy or anything, just the typical provincial attitude a town can develop when its population is too isolated or sheltered. (Certainly not unique to Ireland.)

For the last third of this movie, the lyrics to The Smith's song "London" kept playing in my head, and I've been thinking of that song ever since:


You left
Your tired family grieving
And you think they're sad because you're leaving
But did you see Jealousy in the eyes
Of the ones who had to stay behind?
And do you think you've made
The right decision this time?

You left
Your girlfriend on the platform
With this really ragged notion that you'll return
But she knows
That when he goes
He really goes
And do you think you've made
The right decision this time?

I agree and I too am glad she went back to Brooklyn where her real future lay. Her mother and the townspeople were just on their own selfish agenda for the many complex reasons people do like to hold others back.

But it's not just in small, provincial towns that this mindset can happen -- my own family and one friend did this vicious, jealous thing to me when I made a new life overseas, not wanting to me to go; they basically never friggin' forgave me! And that was in London.

People can be petty, selfish and passive aggressive to their friends and family members striking out on a new life be it from a small town or in the big city.

It's a people thing, human pettiness.

Im conflicted on this point. While I agree that the whole town seemed to get together to keep her in Ireland she didnt seem to push back all that hard until the old woman essentially black mailed her. I couldnt tell if she really wanted to go back to America or if she went because she had been called out.