This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2015, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

In the gentle and heart-wrenching drama "Brooklyn," the whole of the immigrant experience is distilled in the heart of one Irish lass, portrayed with sensitivity and passion by Saoirse Ronan.

Ronan plays Eilis Lacey, a young woman in a small Irish town in the 1950s. She lives with her mother (Jane Brennan) and her older sister Rose (Fiona Glascott). But there's not much open to Eilis at home, where jobs and marriageable prospects are equally scarce. So Eilis is bound for America, in hopes of improving her life.

With the sponsorship of a priest (Jim Broadbent), Eilis finds a room in a boarding house for young Irish women, a job in a department store, and a chance to take night-school classes in accounting. At a church dance, she meets Tony (Emory Cohen), an Italian-American plumber. Despite the clash of ethnic cultures, the pair soon fall in love, and Tony tells Eilis his dreams of building a house on Long Island.

Not long after, though, Eilis gets bad news from home and must return to Ireland — where she appears as the glamorous American to the locals, not the mousy girl who left there. Eilis' short stay there grows longer, as she attends the wedding of her old friend Nancy (Eileen O'Higgins), and starts spending time with Jim (Domhnall Gleeson), a local pub owner who didn't notice her much before.

Don't dismiss Eilis' dilemma as a simple love triangle. As the story — gracefully adapted from Colm Tóibín's novel by Nick Hornby ("Wild," "An Education") — unfolds, Eilis isn't just torn between two men. She's experiencing that wrenching feeling of homesickness, caught between where one was born and where one makes a life, common to immigrants then and now.

Ronan ("Atonement," "The Host") gives a radiant performance perfectly embodies the immigrant's life. Ronan, who at 21 joins the top ranks of our most talented movie stars, delicately plays out the pains and joys of Eilis' metamorphosis from a timid Irish gal to a poised American woman.

Director John Crowley ("Boy A," "Closed Circuit") fills the frame of "Brooklyn" with rich period detail, on both sides of the Atlantic. He evokes the rustic charm and rigidity of Eilis' Irish town, and the impersonal isolation and bright promise of her new American home.

Twitter: @moviecricket —

HHHhj

'Brooklyn'

A young Irish woman seeks a better life in America, in this touching drama.

Where • Area theaters.

When • Opens today.

Rating • PG-13 for a scene of sexuality and brief strong language.

Running time • 111 minutes.