Chemistry?
I recently watched this movie on HBO for the first time and I was wondering if anyone else thought that Saoirse had better chemistry with Domhnall? I personally saw zero (romantic) chemistry between her and Emory Cohen.
shareSilly comment. They are all actors playing roles, you saw what the director and actors wanted you to see. In total it makes the movie. Appreciate it for what it is.
It is a classic case of "opposites attract". She is smart and reserved, he is of average intelligence and passionate. She is Irish and he is Italian. Observers might say "they are not right for each other" but it will always remain a mystery why some couples are attracted to each other. To me they portrayed their roles to perfection.
Tony
Clearly you didn't think much before you posted because your comment is the silly one. You're basically saying that what the director and actors want to come across on screen always does and that couldn't be more false. This is especially true in television, as there is a laundry list of shows where intended endgame relationships were scratched along the way because fans felt more chemistry in other pairings.
I tend to like the whole "opposites attract" thing, so I didn't feel they were wrong for each other, but the chemistry was just not there for me.
Then how about we go from perception to fact. Quoting Ms Ronan, "There was Chemistry straight away between myself and Emory. When we would do scenes together it felt kind of electric. We had that immediately."
Her own words, verbatim. So what you are saying is you can't recognize it, for reasons only you know, but it is silly to state "there was no Chemistry."
To make your point credible you'd have to think "I know there actually is a lot of "Chemistry" there but they did such a good job of acting they convinced me there wasn't any Chemistry." Which is just another silliness.
Those of us who viewed their scenes with a more realistic viewpoint recognize that there in fact was (is) very good Chemistry there.
Tony
I thought her chemistry with Dohmnall was negligible/nonexistent. I had sympathy for his character, but he bored me to tears.
I don't think Tony's character was of average intelligence. He wasn't as articulate as Eilis, but that's not the same as intelligence. In many ways Eilis was limited herself in how everyone in her life made decisions for her and she just went along with them.
"In many ways Eilis was limited herself in how everyone in her life made decisions for her and she just went along with them. "
Yes, at first before she left Ireland. But an important element of the story arc is how she breaks out of that by going to Brooklyn, experiencing the hard knocks, going to school for accounting, meeting Tony, etc. By the time she returns to Ireland for the funeral she is clearly a different person, how she interacted with people, and how she did NOT allow others to make the decision for her. Everyone she knew back home wanted, even expected, her to stay, after all now she had a job and she had Jim if she wanted him, the two main things she lacked before she went to Brooklyn. In the end she realized she had to make her own choices and we see the result of that.
I actually don't like the usual discussions about "Chemistry" between characters because that is such a personal and undefined reaction. What we see in Tony and Jim are opposites. Jim is the safe, standard, dependable, refined Irish guy and if she chose him he would treat her very well. Tony is more of a risk, but he is passionate and exciting. She risks more with Tony but at the same time she has more potential for happiness with Tony. A theme not unlike the one in the movie "Pleasantville", the choice between predictability and safety vs free will and all the hazards that come with that.
To me "Brooklyn" would not have been a very good movie if Eilis had chosen the safety of going back to her town and familiarity of Ireland. In the last scenes we see how far she has come when she decided on the ship to take the new girl under her wing and prepare her for the immigration to Brooklyn.
..*.. TxMike ..*..
I see chemistry with Tony and none with Jim; however, even though she agrees with me, I don't believe Saoirse Ronan's remarks are proof of anything. Many actors have said they had chemistry with a costar and didn't, IMO. I just happen to think in this case, she's right. :)
The scenes in Ireland, with Jim, were filmed first. One of the people associated with Brooklyn said that after the dancing scene, where Jim tells Eilis he has a question to ask her, they worried about how the Tony scenes still to be filmed would match up. The person watching the question scene with Jim thought it was very affecting. Then, says this person (I can't remember who it was or where I read it) they go to the U.S., and the first Tony/Eilis scenes are at Brooklyn college where he waits for her after her classes. As soon as they started the scene, it was realized Tony/Eilis would blow everything else out of the water, the chemistry was so good. So it's sort of comparing a well done scene (Jim/Eilis) with a well done scene that also has tons of natural chemistry.
Regarding that scene with Jim, dancing, and his question was "Will you stay here with me?" The director says the script actually had him asking "Will you marry me?" but when they viewed it he says they found it funny and re-shot it the way it is in the movie.
Me? I saw a good connection between Eilis and Jim. I could see Eilis and Jim falling in real love and living the type of life that was traditional in Ireland in the 1950s. Both would have been very happy. But she had already experienced what it would be like with Tony, the connection there was much stronger.
I actually know a young lady who had her "Jim" just a few years ago, he treated her great, he loved her, she loved him, he was studying to be a doctor (he has become one) and she would have been set for life. But she didn't feel the passion and they hardly ever did "fun" things together. She broke it off, eventually met her "Tony", he is equally generous towards her, they love each other, and they are happily married.
..*.. TxMike ..*..
Yeah, the fact is Eilis lit up around Tony. In the montage scene, when they're at Coney Island, or leaving the movies, it was just a natural flow there that didn't exist with Jim, and a passion too.
share